Astronomers find seven Earth-sized planets near Trappist-1

This is TRAPPIST-1 ... the dwarf parent star that NASA scientists have discovered in the
Aquarius constellation, a solar system just forty light years away from ours.
And these are the seven planets circling round TRAPPIST-1 that the experts are so excited
about - they're similar in size to our planet. Three of them orbit around their parent star
at the right distance for surface water to exist, raising the prospect of life.
"The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if
but when."
TRAPPIST-1 is much smaller than our parent star, the sun. And because it's relatively
small and cool, three of the planets in its orbit could potentially support life.
"If you look at this illustration, you see the comparison between the basketball and
a golf ball. We'll in our case the basketball would be the sun, and the golf ball would
be TRAPPIST-1 - so TRAPPIST-1 is much cooler, much smaller than our sun, and so the planets
in its habitable zone are much closer to it, very close to it with very short orbital periods
and in this graphics, what you can see are the planets, which are found around TRAPPIST-1
with the three of them in the habitable, or so-called the "Goldilocks Zone" where liquid
water could exist is most likely to exist at the surface of the rocky planet. "
And this is the telescope that's made the latest discovery possible ... the Spitzer
space telescope. It's hoped that future telescopes will be able to detect indicators of biological
activity on far-off planets.

Astronomers find seven Earth-sized planets near Trappist-1 | DW News

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