Earth-Sized Worlds

  • Released Monday, May 29th, 2017
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:47PM
  • ID: 12541

About 40 light years (235 trillion miles from Earth), seven Earth-size planets orbit around a single star. Called the TRAPPIST-1 system, all seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions. But the chances are highest with the three planets that were found in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water. The initial discovery of the system was made by researchers using The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile, who discovered two planets in the system by observing the dip in light that occurs when a planet passes between its sun and Earth. Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, NASA'a Spitzer Space Telescope, which trails Earth's orbit around the sun, confirmed their existence and discovered five additional planets. Researchers plan to study the atmospheres of these planets to determine their similarities – or differences – from Earth. Watch the video to learn more.

If a person was standing on one planet’s surface, they could gaze up and see their neighboring worlds, as suggested in this illustration.

If a person was standing on one planet’s surface, they could gaze up and see their neighboring worlds, as suggested in this illustration.

TRAPPIST-1's star is an ultra-cool dwarf, so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting closer than Mercury does to our sun.

TRAPPIST-1's star is an ultra-cool dwarf, so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting closer than Mercury does to our sun.

The Spitzer Space Telescope is situated over 130 million miles away from Earth following our planet in its orbit around the sun.

The Spitzer Space Telescope is situated over 130 million miles away from Earth following our planet in its orbit around the sun.

For More Information

See NASA.gov



Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Video and Images courtesy of NASA/JPL/CalTech