03 May 2016

TRAPPIST-1 Planets

TRAPPIST-1 is an M8 dwarf star which is one of the coldest stars on the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram. It has a surface temperature of about 2550 K (the Sun, by comparison has a surface temperature of 5800 K) and a mass of approximately 0.08 Solar masses.


Recently, astronomers led by Michael Gillon of the University of Liege announced that they discovered three planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1 using the transit method. The two closest are tidally locked to their parent star, much like the Moon is tidally locked to Earth. However, the third planet lies just at the outer edge or beyond the habitable zone of the star.


Theoretically, this planet could harbor life, but in all likelihood, it would nothing like Earth life. By being in the habitable zone, this means that water would be in liquid form, which astronomers believe would be necessary for life to exist.

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