A new study shows that 7 planets around the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 are formed mainly of stone, and in some waters more than on Earth.
The search for exoplanets has led to the discovery of an amazing system of 7 planets that resemble the Earth in size and revolve around the star TRAPPIST-1. This is an ultra-cold dwarf star, remote for 40 light years. Scientists continued to explore the worlds and obtained new data on their nature.
Researchers are looking for potentially habitable planets around other stars, so the goal of the SPECULOOS project focuses on the smallest and dimmest nearby stars. The size and weakness of dwarfs makes them ideal for studying orbital planets. But the worlds are endowed with other advantages. Their short orbital periods fluctuate by 1.5–18.7 days, which opens up an excellent perspective for observation.
With the help of powerful devices, like the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, scientists have studied the nature and potential suitability of the planets of the system.
TRAPPIST-1 Worlds Details
The analysis showed that 7 planets belong to the terrestrial type, protrude rocky worlds and have more water than Earth. Density shows that 5% of the mass of some of them falls on water, that is, 250 times more than in the Earth’s oceans!
In addition, around the hotter planets may be a dense atmospheric layer, and on the more distant and cool - an icy surface. Most importantly, three of them do not belong to gaseous and can accommodate life forms.
What's next?
These discoveries are just the beginning. The new space telescope, James Webb, which is planned to be launched in 2020, will allow a deeper study of the atmospheric layer and the identification (if any) of molecules of biological origin. But this does not mean that the main goal will be only TRAPPIST-1. As part of the study, SPECULOOS will study thousands of stars similar to TRAPPIST-1.
