Promising Worlds Found Around Nearby Ultra-cool Dwarf Star

Another exiting discovery that will be studied closely in the next days as two of three planets is passing their host star, and astronomers are ready to gather data that might show water vapor and the possibility of that life could be on these exoplanets.


SOURCE NASA

Astronomers using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory have discovered three planets with sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth, orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth.

Although they orbit very close to their host dwarf star, the inner two planets only receive four times and twice, respectively, the amount of radiation received by the Earth, because their star is much fainter than the Sun.

Fortuitously, two of these planets are transiting the star on May 4, an event that happens only once every two years as seen from Earth. Astronomers hope to make measurements of the atmospheres of both of these planets and look for evidence of water vapor.
The Hubble Space Telescope can characterize the atmospheres of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system by observing them as they pass in front of, or transit, their parent star. Hubble astronomers will use spectroscopy to measure starlight as it filters through a planet’s atmosphere.

This could be the view from one of the planets.

Amazing how they can take 1-2 pixels and derive so much information from them.

a reply to: Gothmog

rofl! Amazing isnt it!!

originally posted by: Gothmog
Amazing how they can take 1-2 pixels and derive so much information from them.

they dont just look at an image and make their conclusions.
they employ a myriad tools to measure certain characteristics of a foreign planetary body and its host star before making conclusions.


but yea... the source is sketchy... NASA. the greatest cash cow in history of man. when its almost funding time, a lot of 'discoveries are 'made'.

a reply to: odzeandennz

they dont just look at an image and make their conclusions. they employ a myriad tools to measure certain characteristics of a foreign planetary body and its host star before making conclusions.

Same 2 pixels though. Light coming from light years away , deflected, dispersed and changed through a myriad of "stuff" it passes through.

a reply to: Mianeye

Hubble astronomers will use spectroscopy to measure starlight as it filters through a planet’s atmosphere.

And anything else between that and the Hubble lens?

new things are being discovered everyday,still not grasping this big bang theory,when you can,t explain then we,ll just make crap up if you ask me .

Ready the ATS Ark Ships for lights years away from now Earths politicians dine on those backwater death by sludge planets.

i dont want to sound ill-informed, but visible light is only a small part of the equation.
the entire electromagnetic spectrum is observed.Everything from radio waves to microwaves to visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and the gamma rays emitted. in addition the orbits and density andd size of neighboring bodies are used to determine the make up of the planets.
an apparent flux is used in approximation for distance.

im in the biomed field....
that was my best educated comment on the subject.

experts, feel free to correct me.

Very interesting OP.. I'll keep an eye on this thread.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Mianeye

Hubble astronomers will use spectroscopy to measure starlight as it filters through a planet’s atmosphere.

And anything else between that and the Hubble lens?

And what would that be, apart from some extremely rarefied interstellar hydrogen? Unless the star is positioned along the galactic plane, its view should be pretty much unobstructed.

but yea... the source is sketchy... NASA. the greatest cash cow in history of man. when its almost funding time, a lot of 'discoveries are 'made'.



I'd disagree w/this statement. NASA™ may be in the Top 5 Boondoggles but farcebook™ is #1. With NASA™ at least We get some pictures, with farcebook™ You just get spied on.

Look at it this way, Agent Zuckerberg got $100B USD to His head and then surprised everyone that ever knew Him by getting married in a 50/50 State of Ca. As soon as Your grandkids' grandkids find out the whole thing is just a giant seine to entrap info/intel on TheSerfs, then they'll only have to give back $50B, the other $50B is then Mrs. Zuckerberg, also an Agent..

originally posted by: odzeandennz
NASA. the greatest cash cow in history of man. when its almost funding time, a lot of 'discoveries are 'made'.

This may be the most remarkably ignorant thing I've read all day. Tell me, what is NASA's approximate operating budget? Hint: It's peanuts.

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

hint its always peanuts. do you know when it wasn't?
when has NASA ever nit claim their budget was thin...
when has NASA ever not made its case in front of congress for funding...
when..
its always 'peanuts ' it seems.

the word 'ignorant' shouldnt be just a cop out .
if its ignorant please edify.
why let me keep being ignorant, if you know something the general public dont know or you have sources to refute that statement, do SO. dont just say its 'ignorant'.

but when funding ever stopped. i can remember several times when the armed forces budgets were capped or the government 'shut down' over budget.

yet NASA always gets 'peanuts'
anyway...

Doesn't NASA take many years to announce conclusions of tests like these. I recall prior instances where NASA was preparing to study "promising" planets that were found. This was like 8 years ago.

I think they observe, then study, then meet, then re-visit the study, then meet again, then announce the findings. The life-cycle for this is 8 to 10 years?

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance

originally posted by: odzeandennz
NASA. the greatest cash cow in history of man. when its almost funding time, a lot of 'discoveries are 'made'.

This may be the most remarkably ignorant thing I've read all day. Tell me, what is NASA's approximate operating budget? Hint: It's peanuts.

I think Donald Trump gets more annual revenue than NASA receives in funding.

a reply to: carewemust

Nasa averages 15.8 billions per year in funding since its institution 50 years ago.
19.3 billion for fiscal 2016 according to Wikipedia.

back to topic...

a reply to: wildespace

should be pretty much unobstructed.

Forty light years of space isn't empty by any means. Just musing. Of course any interstellar dust wouldn't be visible in the focal length of the instruments, either.

Ultra-cool dwarf star?

a reply to: Mianeye

TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is a project driven by the Origins in Cosmology and Astrophysics group (OrCA) at the Department of Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography (AGO) of the University of Liège (Belgium). Mostly funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) and the Liège University, TRAPPIST is devoted to the detection and characterization of planets located outside our solar system (exoplanets) and to the study of comets and other small bodies in our solar system. It consists of two 60cm robotic telescope located at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile and at Oukaïmden Observatory in Marroco.

TRAPPIST

Hence the name ... a reference the Trappist beers