Nasa's 'holy grail': Entire new solar system that could support alien life discovered
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fortyacres
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Scientists have found a new solar system filled with planets that look like Earth and could support life, Nasa has announced.
At least three of the seven planets represent the “holy grail for planet-hunting astronomers”, because they sit within the “temperate zone” and are the right temperature to allow alien life to flourish, the researchers have said. And they are capable of having oceans, again suggesting that life could flourish on them.
No other star system has ever been found to contain so many Earth-sized and rocky planets, of the kind thought to be necessary to contain aliens.
The researchers might soon be able to find evidence of life on the planets, they have said. British astronomer Dr Chris Copperwheat, from Liverpool John Moores University, who was part of the international team, said: “The discovery of multiple rocky planets with surface temperatures which allow for liquid water make this amazing system an exciting future target in the search for life."
Any evidence of life is likely to be “strong, very strong or conclusive”, the scientists said. It will be done by looking for what molecules are in the atmosphere – if they were to find things like oxygen, and in the right amounts, then it would probably indicate that there was biological activity.
Co-researcher Dr Amaury Triaud, of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, said: “We hope we will know if there's life there within the next decade.”
Even if life isn’t ever found near TRAPPIST-1, it might eventually develop there. The star is relatively young – even when our own Sun has run out of fuel and our solar system is destroyed, the newly-discovered one will still be in its early infancy.
TRAPPIST-1 “burns hydrogen so slowly that it will live for another 10 trillion years – more than 700 times longer than the Universe has existed so far, which is arguably enough time for life to evolve”, wrote Ignas AG Snellen from the Leiden Observatory, in an accompanying article about the discovery.
All of the planets were found using a method called “transit photometry”. That works by watching out for when a planet passes, or transits, in front of its host star – blocking out a small amount of light, allowing us to see the planet and learn about its size.
Scientists first found the star TRAPPIST-1 in 2010, after monitoring the smallest stars close to the Sun. Since then, they have been watching out for those transits – and after seeing 34 of them clearly, they proposed that they can be attributed to the seven new planets.
They then worked to understand the size and composition of each of the worlds. That work is still continuing, but the researchers believe that the planets have large oceans, are temperate and other conditions that could make way for alien life.
The Seven Wonders of Trappist-1
Dr Michael Gillon, from the STAR Institute at the University of Liege in Belgium, said: “This is an amazing planetary system – not only because we have found so many planets, but because they are all surprisingly similar in size to the Earth.”
If a person were on one of the planets, everything would look a lot darker than usual, the scientists said. The amount of light heading to your eye would be about 200 times less than you get from the sun, and would be comparable to what you can see at sunset.
Despite that relative darkness, everything would still feel warm, the researchers said. That’s because roughly the same amount of energy would be coming from the star as warms our Earth – but it does so infrared.
From the Independent/NASA.
At least three of the seven planets represent the “holy grail for planet-hunting astronomers”, because they sit within the “temperate zone” and are the right temperature to allow alien life to flourish, the researchers have said. And they are capable of having oceans, again suggesting that life could flourish on them.
No other star system has ever been found to contain so many Earth-sized and rocky planets, of the kind thought to be necessary to contain aliens.
The researchers might soon be able to find evidence of life on the planets, they have said. British astronomer Dr Chris Copperwheat, from Liverpool John Moores University, who was part of the international team, said: “The discovery of multiple rocky planets with surface temperatures which allow for liquid water make this amazing system an exciting future target in the search for life."
Any evidence of life is likely to be “strong, very strong or conclusive”, the scientists said. It will be done by looking for what molecules are in the atmosphere – if they were to find things like oxygen, and in the right amounts, then it would probably indicate that there was biological activity.
Co-researcher Dr Amaury Triaud, of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, said: “We hope we will know if there's life there within the next decade.”
Even if life isn’t ever found near TRAPPIST-1, it might eventually develop there. The star is relatively young – even when our own Sun has run out of fuel and our solar system is destroyed, the newly-discovered one will still be in its early infancy.
TRAPPIST-1 “burns hydrogen so slowly that it will live for another 10 trillion years – more than 700 times longer than the Universe has existed so far, which is arguably enough time for life to evolve”, wrote Ignas AG Snellen from the Leiden Observatory, in an accompanying article about the discovery.
All of the planets were found using a method called “transit photometry”. That works by watching out for when a planet passes, or transits, in front of its host star – blocking out a small amount of light, allowing us to see the planet and learn about its size.
Scientists first found the star TRAPPIST-1 in 2010, after monitoring the smallest stars close to the Sun. Since then, they have been watching out for those transits – and after seeing 34 of them clearly, they proposed that they can be attributed to the seven new planets.
They then worked to understand the size and composition of each of the worlds. That work is still continuing, but the researchers believe that the planets have large oceans, are temperate and other conditions that could make way for alien life.
The Seven Wonders of Trappist-1
Dr Michael Gillon, from the STAR Institute at the University of Liege in Belgium, said: “This is an amazing planetary system – not only because we have found so many planets, but because they are all surprisingly similar in size to the Earth.”
If a person were on one of the planets, everything would look a lot darker than usual, the scientists said. The amount of light heading to your eye would be about 200 times less than you get from the sun, and would be comparable to what you can see at sunset.
Despite that relative darkness, everything would still feel warm, the researchers said. That’s because roughly the same amount of energy would be coming from the star as warms our Earth – but it does so infrared.
From the Independent/NASA.
Comments
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Doesn't this kind of "discovery" happen every other month or so?
It's very interesting, but what exactly does this mean for us in practical terms? -
Lol @ knowing what another life form needs to flourish.
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"Build a forcefield" - Trump
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Warp factor 8.
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OK. Man, ? love Star Wars. -
These worlds will be conquered by Fuhrer Trump and his Alt-Right military.
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Mfs still fighting over "earth is flat"
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What if the Aliens look like this?That would be wild.
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Cabana_Da_Don wrote: »What if the Aliens look like this?That would be wild.
that would mean nothing. -
Chick said it would take 38 light years to get there or like 43 million years to travel there jet speed. ? better get in their Merkaba lol
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Cabana_Da_Don wrote: »What if the Aliens look like this?That would be wild.
Wouldnt be surprising at all assuming they were humanoid.
Dark skin is more advantageous for living near host stars i would imagine.
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All those billions of dollar NASA spends every year at thats it, a few planets and you still asking it they have or could sustain life, open up the UFO files.
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All those billions of dollar NASA spends every year at thats it, a few planets and you still asking it they have or could sustain life, open up the UFO files.
you really dont know what NASA does do you....
you need to read something. -
They said they'll know about life maybe in the next 10 years..sighs
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Cabana_Da_Don wrote: »What if the Aliens look like this?That would be wild.
Wouldn't be easy surprised if we made it "there" already. Hopefully they don't migrate to the caves again, if you know what I mean. -
So they determine all this by measuring how much light is blocked when a planet passes in front of a star? How much of these conclusions are essentially educated guesses? I'd assume most of them.
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I'd say that the chances for life are incredibly high considering A. Three of the planets are in the habitable zone and B. they orbit a dwarf star which is the most stable type of star there is.
Meaning whatever organisms may be present will/have had ample time to develop in a steady and unchanging environment. -
So they determine all this by measuring how much light is blocked when a planet passes in front of a star? How much of these conclusions are essentially educated guesses? I'd assume most of them.
Yes they can measure all this by light.They showed it.It was live on facebook.They basically ´´film´´ or take photos of the solar system.Every time they take a new photo there´s gaps between the objetcs(planest,star).The measure basically the gaps.When they establish the pattern they find out the cycles and the distance between the planets and there sun.By knowing the distance they know if there´s a possibility of ´´water´´ etc.They can calculate to a T if you can live there or not. -
Cabana_Da_Don wrote: »What if the Aliens look like this?That would be wild.
Wouldn't be easy surprised if we made it "there" already. Hopefully they don't migrate to the caves again, if you know what I mean.
I know right lol. -
Just imagem if all 7 planets had life.That would be ? crazy.Or even 1 or 2.Too many thoughts right now.
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Yall think that alien ? snappin?
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Cabana_Da_Don wrote: »So they determine all this by measuring how much light is blocked when a planet passes in front of a star? How much of these conclusions are essentially educated guesses? I'd assume most of them.
Yes they can measure all this by light.They showed it.It was live on facebook.They basically ´´film´´ or take photos of the solar system.Every time they take a new photo there´s gaps between the objetcs(planest,star).The measure basically the gaps.When they establish the pattern they find out the cycles and the distance between the planets and there sun.By knowing the distance they know if there´s a possibility of ´´water´´ etc.They can calculate to a T if you can live there or not.
I doubt to a T though. Who knows what the atmosphere is like on those planets or their physical makeup? There's a lot of assumptions being made based on knowledge of our world and the fact we have life because we're X distance from our sun. -
bless the child wrote: »Chick said it would take 38 light years to get there or like 43 million years to travel there jet speed. ? better get in their Merkaba lol
I always find these discoveries interesting, but they don't mean ? until we can find an applicable way of overcoming the bold. I believe the Juno spacecraft is currently the fastest man made object we've put in space, and it travels at ~ 25 miles/second. The speed of light is 7440 times faster than that @ 186,000 miles/second. No normal object can travel at the speed of light. Even if by some miracle of science we were able to reach the speed of light, it would still take us 10s of millions of years to travel there.