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TRAPPIST-1
NASA and Belgian-led research team announced its Discovery on Wednesday.
TRAPPIST-1 the Discovery is a small, dim star in the constellation Aquarius, less tan 40 light-years from Eath. Seven planets circle TRAPPIST-1, with orbits ranging from one and a half to 20 days. If TRAPPIST-1 were our sun, all these planets would fit inside the orbit of Mercury. Thats how close they are to their star and why their orbits are so short. The Discovery, reported in the journal Nature, was made by astronomers using NASA's exoplanet-hunting Spitzer Space Telescope.
Spitzer's data allowed the team to measure precisely the sizes of the seven planets and estimate the masses and densities of six of them. The Spitzer was launched in 2003, and was never meant to continue in space for this long but the telescope is still making discoveries beyond what was imagined. It follows the earth's orbit around the sun, but travels slightly slower, so over time it gets further away from the earth. It is now in its "final" phase, which lasts until 2018.
NASA and Belgian-led research team announced its Discovery on Wednesday.
TRAPPIST-1 the Discovery is a small, dim star in the constellation Aquarius, less tan 40 light-years from Eath. Seven planets circle TRAPPIST-1, with orbits ranging from one and a half to 20 days. If TRAPPIST-1 were our sun, all these planets would fit inside the orbit of Mercury. Thats how close they are to their star and why their orbits are so short. The Discovery, reported in the journal Nature, was made by astronomers using NASA's exoplanet-hunting Spitzer Space Telescope.
Spitzer's data allowed the team to measure precisely the sizes of the seven planets and estimate the masses and densities of six of them. The Spitzer was launched in 2003, and was never meant to continue in space for this long but the telescope is still making discoveries beyond what was imagined. It follows the earth's orbit around the sun, but travels slightly slower, so over time it gets further away from the earth. It is now in its "final" phase, which lasts until 2018.
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