The Universe Revealed

Newly discovered Earth-like planets

Newly discovered Earth-like planets

Astronomers at the University of Belgium have recently discovered three new Earth-like planets orbiting an Ultra cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1, which is only 40 light years away.
Unfortunately, none of these planets would resemble Earth. The reason that they're so important is that they are only slightly larger than Earth, like 1.05 to 1.16 times. This star would be not much brighter than Jupiter and it would be very small compared to our Sun, but these dwarf stars remain stable for many billions of years, allowing an intelligent species plenty of time to develop and create a technological society.

This star has a temperature of only 2550 K, which is much lower than our Sun. That means that the planets have to snuggle up close to their source of heat and light. Two of the planets orbit very close to the star, with years of only 1.5 to 2.4 days. The furthest away has a year of 45 to 73 days. It's thought that they are able to support liquid water on their surfaces. The furthest planet from the star may be an ice world.

What would it be like to live on these planets? Well, for one thing the light would be very reddish and dim with the absence of blue light. Oceans would be red, and you would be able to look directly at the star without being blinded. The star would appear to be huge in the sky. The nights could be very cold down in the – 80 to -100. Daytime temps could reach 90 C, which is pretty hot! It's hard to tell what could develop in the surface of such a planet because they may be tidally locked to the star. If this is the case, the side facing the star would be too hot to support life. Life would have to develop in the twilight regions between the side facing the star and the side facing away. The other big problem with dwarf stars is that they tend to shoot off very energetic flares, so these planets better have good magnetic fields to protect life on them from heavy radiation.

The other big question is: do any of these planets have atmospheres. This question will soon be answered when new space telescopes are launched with the ability to see the planets and detect what kind of atmospheres they have. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.