Scientists have recognized two planets circling round a dim dwarf star as particularly probably candidates for habitable worlds, with possible water and a supply of heat, situations thought crucial for life beyond Earth.
Since their discovery last year, the seven planets and their star, referred to as Trappist-1, have thrilled astronomers hunting for a world resembling Earth. Never earlier than had scientists discovered so many Earth-sized planets round a single star, or in a zone the place the acute temperatures of house wouldn’t obliterate the possibilities of life.
The discovering suggested that there could also be planets as rocky and large as Earth all around the Milky Way, and scientists quickly set to work analyzing the Trappist-1 system.
With colleagues in Hungary, Dr Amy Barr of the Planetary Science Institute constructed mathematical models of the seven planets and their interiors, and located that six of the seven worlds probably have water, as liquid or ice, with a global ocean possible on one. The group then modeled the planets’ orbits to determine a likely surface temperature on the worlds.
“That’s one of the main innovations of the paper,” Barr told the Guardian. “The planets are also on eccentric orbits – kind of egg-shaped – so every time the planet goes around the star it gets stretched and squeezed.”
> Shiuly Akter
