Scientists Discover A Bunch Of New Habitable Planets

Scientists Discover a Bunch of New Potentially Habitable Planets May 08 09:02 2016 By Adrian Sandoval "When we say scientists are searching for life, they are searching for life that would require liquid water and something like oxygen, so that's the kind of life we are used to here on earth so that's what we're looking for". For Earth-sized planets orbiting most stars this tiny effect is usually swamped starlight, but the TRAPPIST 1 is a red ultra-cool dwarf stars, which isn't bright enough to block out the effect. Two of the planets are in tight, close orbits around the star; a year on either planet passes in only three Earth days. The announcement came on May 2 after a group of global astronomers from MIT, NASA, the University of California at San Diego, the University of Liege and other organizations made the discovery. The three planets orbit a star in the Aquarius constellations named Trappist-1, which is about the size of Jupiter. Well, according to a new study published in Nature, we might not be after all. Each of the planets has a side that's perpetually in daylight and another side that's completely dark. But the next step was clearly to detect and study in detail planets like the Earth and this is beginning now, so it's really a new era. The discovery of a watery planet may be only a matter of time. More than 1,000 exoplanets, planetary bodies orbiting a star other than the Sun, have been located outside of our system, many thanks to the work of the Kepler space telescope, now repurposed as the K2 Second Light mission. This is the first time astronomers have discovered planets orbiting a star so dim (see artist's rendering above). A team of astronomers has recently discovered three habitable alien planets that have Earth-like qualities. TRAPPIST-1 is a dwarf star, approximately the size of Jupiter, and is said to be very cool, meaning that the three planets circling the star have Earth-like temperatures. But all of them may still have areas where water exists in liquid state-what scientists consider a prerequisite for development of life similar to that found on Earth. The host star is an ultra-cool dwarf star - a type of cool, red star. Meanwhile, the third planet is outside and still not very well known orbit, but probably receive less radiation than Earth, but perhaps enough to be within the habitable zone. "These planets are so close, and their star so small, we can study their atmosphere and composition, and further down the road, which is within our generation, assess if they are actually inhabited", study co-author Julien de Wit told MIT News. The telescope is installed in Chilean facilities at La Silla European Southern Observatory (ESO). The habitable zone is the distance a planet can be from its sun to give it the right conditions to host life: Too close to the sun, it's an inferno; too far away and it's a frozen tundra. State of the State Ks http://stateofthestateks.com/2016/05/08/scientists-discover-a-bunch-of-new-potentially-habitable/