Seven Earth Like Exoplanets Discovered! – A breakthrough!
When it comes to searching for life beyond the earth, there are so many factors that set scientists thinking. In the recent breakthrough, seven plants having mass similar to that of the Earth orbiting around a dwarf star of Jupiter has been discovered by the scientists. These are located around merely 39 light years from the Sun. the temperature of the planets’ found are low enough for making the presence of liquid water on the surface.
In May last year, the scientists discovered three planets passing right in front of TRAPPIST-1 Star. They decided to further monitor it from the space and ground and discovered four more exoplanets orbiting around it. The results of the same would be published in Nature on February 23. The first author of the paper is Michaël Gillon from the Université de Liège, Belgium.
So far these planets are in habitable zone. This is for the first time that so many Earthlike planets have been discovered around a star. The star is small in size and with low-mass. Chances are that these seven planets could have life and liquid water too. They have been discovered in the habitable zone of the star. What’s more? This is also for the first time that several planets have been found in the habitable zone of a star.
The scientists have been successful in taking precise mass measurement of six of the seven planets. Although all this is in the preliminary stage, they indicate that all these planets are terrestrial with liquid water. The seven planets found are apt for detailed and comprehensive atmospheric study. The architecture indicates that they formed beyond the star and then migrated towards it.
According to the scientists, it is now possible to study the chemical composition and climate of the atmosphere at the planets’. One of the first things that scientists are trying to rule out is the presence of large hydrogen envelope in order to make sure that planets are just Earthlike. This, in turn, would be followed by the comprehensive study of the chemical composition and climate for finding whether there is possibility of life on these planets or not. in case, life exists on these planets then we will get to know about it in a decade.
The four newly found planets orbit around the sun every 4.04 days, 6.06 days, 8.1 days and 12.3 days respectively. Out of these planets, two of three were discovered last year and orbital period of these planets are 1.51 days and 2.42 days respectively.
These five planets are of the sizes similar to the Earth whereas remaining two are intermediate in their size – between the Earth and Mars. On the basis of the estimation, the six inner planets might have a rocky composition. The sixth planet, however, has low density which indicates a volatile-rich composition. This volatile content could be either atmosphere or/and ice layer.
