NASA Astronomers Are Celebrating A New Discovery!
The big news is that around a very nearby, cold, small star, they found seven rocky, Earth-sized planets, all of which could potentially have liquid water. Three of the planets orbit in the habitable zone around the star and liquid water could exist on any of the seven planets given the right conditions.
The planetary system is called Trappist-1, after the Belgian operated telescope in Chile. Trappist found two planets in 2016. NASA's Spitzer Space telescope, with the help of ground-based telescopes, discovered five more.
The Trappist-1 planets are extremely close to one another. From a planet's surface, you could easily see other Trappist-1 planets in the sky.
NASA's James Webb Telescope, launching in 2018, could easily teach us even more about the Trappist-1 system. It will be able to detect the chemical fingerprints of water, methane, and oxygen of potential atmospheres.
They are only 40 light years away!