NASA announces seven Earth-like planets

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) announced that it has discovered seven new planets 40 light years from the solar system, similar in characteristics to Earth.

The planets were discovered orbiting the ultracold red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. Each of them is comparable to the Earth in size, and is also located in the so-called habitable zone - that is, in an area where there is enough light and heat to find water in liquid form.

In addition, according to scientists, four of these seven planets may even be suitable for the existence of alien life on them. "The discovery of a second Earth is not a question of 'if', but a question of 'when," said Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy head of NASA's scientific missions directorate.

“The planets are all close to each other and very close to the star, which is very similar to the moons around Jupiter.

Nevertheless, the star is so small and so cold that the planets can have liquid water and, possibly, life, explained Michel Guyon, an astronomer from the University of Liege.

According to astronomers, these exoplanets were discovered using the Spitzer space telescope. Moreover, they consider this discovery to be the most important of those that have been made with the help of this telescope.

Astronomers also noted that the seven planets they discovered are relatively close to the earth, but it would take about 40 million years to reach them, for example, on a jet plane.

The BBC Russian Service was online broadcasting NASA's press conference on the opening.

Until now, scientists have already known several dozen planets that are considered "Earth twins". This is the name for hypothetical terrestrial exoplanets that are located within the habitable zone of a star and may be suitable for life.

At the same time, scientists have not been able to obtain any evidence of the existence of life on these planets.