Could there be another Earth?
Trappist-1 is 39 light years away, and is home to 3 planets believed to be habitable. Now you might be thinking that 39 light years away is too far. You would usually be right, but there is possibly a way that I will get to in a moment. Trappist-1 was discovered by Michael Gillon and a team of Belgian astronomers. They discovered the system by using transit photometry. This means they tracked the brightness of the star, and when the planet passes, the light dims. This happened a lot, as there are 7 planets in the system. The star, Trappist-1 is an ultra-cooled red dwarf star. The star is slightly bigger, but much more massive than our solar systems Jupiter. The system was discovered in 2015 the La Silla Observatory in Chile and the Observatoire de l'Oukaïmeden in Morocco. In 2017, astronomers found 4 additional exoplanets around Trappist-1, adding to the total number of exoplanets and making it 11. Now, travel to Trappist-1 may seem far away, but it may be closer. Using the revolutionary Starshot initiative, we may be able to get there in only 200 years. If we want to see if life can survive, we can send a pod of water bears, or Tardigrades connected to the to the Star shot, and will release the pod into the atmosphere of Trappist-1E, as this is the world that is most likely habitable. Another exoplanet that I want to talk about is Kepler-186f. NASA's Explore the Surface VR makes this planet look like one of the most habitable planets we know of. With red grass, and water, it would be perfect for humans. If only. it were not 550 light years away. But not all planets can sustain human life. For example, HD 189733 b, were it rains shards of glass at 5,400 mph. Or Kepler 70 b, being burnt to a crisp by its own star. These are some exoplanets that aren't so good for humans. To find out what some of the planets look like, copy the link below.
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/exoplanet-travel-bureau/explore-trappist-1d/?travel_bureau=true
There is an estimated 40 billion habitable planets in the universe, and a 11 billion orbit sun like stars. We of course will never visit all of these planets, but we can always have hope. Thank you for your time, and reading my article.
Sincerely,
Oliver Lennox
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/exoplanet-travel-bureau/explore-trappist-1d/?travel_bureau=true
There is an estimated 40 billion habitable planets in the universe, and a 11 billion orbit sun like stars. We of course will never visit all of these planets, but we can always have hope. Thank you for your time, and reading my article.
Sincerely,
Oliver Lennox