{"id":12567,"date":"2016-05-02T11:00:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T15:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12567"},"modified":"2016-05-01T19:14:47","modified_gmt":"2016-05-01T23:14:47","slug":"eso-three-possibly-habitable-worlds-observed-in-nearby-dwarf-star-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12567","title":{"rendered":"ESO: Three possibly habitable worlds observed in nearby dwarf star system"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest report from ESO<\/a>\u00a0(European Southern Observatory):<\/p>\n

Three Potentially Habitable Worlds Found
\nAround Nearby Ultracool Dwarf Star <\/strong>
\n<\/a>Currently the best place to search for life beyond the Solar System<\/em><\/p>\n

\"eso1615a[1]\"<\/a>
This artist\u2019s impression [Full size image<\/a>] shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth that were discovered using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory. These worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System. They are the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star. In this view one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of its tiny and dim parent star. Credit: ESO\/M. Kornmesser<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Astronomers using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory have discovered three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth. These worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System. They are the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star. The new results will be published in the journal Nature on 2 May 2016.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/cdn.eso.org\/videos\/medium_podcast\/eso1615a.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Astronomers using telescopes at ESO’s observatories in Chile have discovered three planets around a dim dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth. These worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and the Earth, and they are the best targets so far found in the hunt for life elsewhere in the Universe.\u00a0Credit:\u00a0ESO. [More video info & options<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

A team of astronomers led by Micha\u00ebl Gillon, of the Institut d\u2019Astrophysique et G\u00e9ophysique at the University of Li\u00e8ge<\/a> in Belgium, have used the Belgian TRAPPIST<\/a> telescope [1]<\/a> to observe the star 2MASS J23062928-0502285<\/a>, now also known as TRAPPIST-1. They found that this dim and cool star faded slightly at regular intervals, indicating that several objects were passing between the star and the Earth [2]<\/a>. Detailed analysis showed that three planets with similar sizes to the Earth were present.<\/p>\n

\"eso1615b[1]\"<\/a>
This artist\u2019s impression [full size version<\/a>] shows an imagined view from close to one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth that were discovered using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory. These worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System. They are the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star. In this view one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of its tiny and dim parent star. Credit: ESO\/M. Kornmesser<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>TRAPPIST-1 is an ultracool dwarf star \u2014 it is much cooler and redder than the Sun and barely larger than Jupiter. Such stars are both very common in the Milky Way and very long-lived, but this is the first time that planets have been found around one of them. Despite being so close to the Earth, this star is too dim and too red to be seen with the naked eye or even visually with a large amateur telescope. It lies in the constellation of Aquarius<\/a> (The Water Carrier).<\/p>\n

Emmanu\u00ebl Jehin, a co-author of the new study, is excited:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really is a paradigm shift with regards to the planet population and the path towards finding life in the Universe. So far, the existence of such \u2018red worlds\u2019 orbiting ultra-cool dwarf stars was purely theoretical, but now we have not just one lonely planet around such a faint red star but a complete system of three planets<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n

Micha\u00ebl Gillon, lead author of the paper presenting the discovery, explains the significance of the new findings:<\/p>\n

“Why are we trying to detect Earth-like planets around the smallest and coolest stars in the solar neighbourhood? The reason is simple: systems around these tiny stars are the only places where we can detect life on an Earth-sized exoplanet with our current technology. So if we want to find life elsewhere in the Universe, this is where we should start to look.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

Astronomers will search for signs of life by studying the effect that the atmosphere of a transiting planet has on the light reaching Earth. For Earth-sized planets orbiting most stars this tiny effect is swamped by the brilliance of the starlight. Only for the case of faint red ultra-cool dwarf stars \u2014 like TRAPPIST-1 \u2014 is this effect big enough to be detected.<\/p>\n

\"eso1615e[1]\"<\/a>
This picture [Larger versions<\/a>] shows the Sun and the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 to scale. The faint star has only 11% of the diameter of the sun and is much redder in colour. Credit: ESO<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Follow-up observations with larger telescopes, including the HAWK-I<\/a> instrument on ESO\u2019s 8-metre Very Large Telescope<\/a> in Chile, have shown that the planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1 have sizes very similar to that of Earth. Two of the planets have orbital periods of about 1.5 days and 2.4 days respectively, and the third planet has a less well determined period in the range 4.5 to 73 days.<\/p>\n

“With such short orbital periods, the planets are between 20 and 100 times closer to their star than the Earth to the Sun. The structure of this planetary system is much more similar in scale to the system of Jupiter\u2019s moons than to that of the Solar System<\/em>,”<\/p>\n

explains Micha\u00ebl Gillon.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/cdn.eso.org\/videos\/medium_podcast\/eso1615c.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

This artist\u2019s impression video<\/a> shows an imagined view from close to one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth that were discovered using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory. These worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System. They are the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this view one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of its tiny and dim parent star.\u00a0Credit:\u00a0<\/strong>ESO\/M. Kornmesser<\/em><\/p>\n

Although they orbit very close to their host dwarf star, the inner two planets only receive four times and twice, respectively, the amount of radiation received by the Earth, because their star is much fainter than the Sun. That puts them closer to the star than the habitable zone<\/a> for this system, although it is still possible that they possess habitable regions on their surfaces. The third, outer, planet\u2019s orbit is not yet well known, but it probably receives less radiation than the Earth does, but maybe still enough to lie within the habitable zone.<\/p>\n

“Thanks to several giant telescopes currently under construction, including ESO\u2019s E-ELT and the NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope due to launch for 2018, we will soon be able to study the atmospheric composition of these planets and to explore them first for water, then for traces of biological activity. That’s a giant step in the search for life in the Universe<\/em>,”<\/p>\n

concludes Julien de Wit, a co-author from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA.<\/p>\n

This work opens up a new direction for exoplanet hunting, as around 15% of the stars near to the Sun are ultra-cool dwarf stars, and it also serves to highlight that the search for exoplanets has now entered the realm of potentially habitable cousins of the Earth. The TRAPPIST survey is a prototype for a more ambitious project called SPECULOOS<\/a> that will be installed at ESO\u2019s Paranal Observatory [3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"eso1615d[1]\"<\/a>
This chart shows the naked eye stars visible on a clear dark night in the sprawling constellation of Aquarius (The Water Carrier). The position of the faint and very red ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 is marked. Although it is relatively close to the Sun it is very faint and not visible in small telescopes. Credit: ESO\/IAU and Sky & Telescope<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Notes<\/em>
\n<\/a>[1] TRAPPIST (the TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope)<\/a> is a Belgian robotic 0.6-metre telescope operated from the University of Li\u00e8ge and based at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory<\/a> in Chile. It spends much of its time monitoring the light from around 60 of the nearest ultracool dwarf stars and brown dwarfs (\u201cstars\u201d which are not quite massive enough to initiate sustained nuclear fusion in their cores), looking for evidence of planetary transits.The target in this case, TRAPPIST-1, is an ultracool dwarf, with about 0.05% of the Sun\u2019s luminosity and a mass of about 8% that of the Sun.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2] This is one of the main methods that astronomers use to identify the presence of a planet around a star. They look at the light coming from the star, to see if some of the light is blocked as the planet passes in front of its host star on the line of sight to Earth \u2014 transits<\/a> the star, as astronomers say. As the planet orbits around its star, we expect to see regular small dips in the light coming from the star as the planet moves in front of it.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[3] SPECULOOS is mostly funded by the European Research Council and led also by the University of Li\u00e8ge. Four 1-metre robotic telescopes will be installed at the Paranal Observatory to search for habitable planets around 500 ultra-cool stars over the next five years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest report from ESO\u00a0(European Southern Observatory): Three Potentially Habitable Worlds Found Around Nearby Ultracool Dwarf Star Currently the best place to search for life beyond the Solar System Astronomers using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory have discovered three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth. These worlds … Continue reading ESO: Three possibly habitable worlds observed in nearby dwarf star system<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-exoplanets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3gH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15508,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=15508","url_meta":{"origin":12567,"position":0},"title":"ESO: New ExTrA observatory to look for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting red dwarf stars","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A new report from\u00a0ESO\u00a0 (European Southern Observatory): First Light for Planet Hunter ExTrA at La Silla A new national facility at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory has successfully made its first observations. The ExTrA telescopes will search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. ExTrA\u2019s novel design allows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/eso1803a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13949,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13949","url_meta":{"origin":12567,"position":1},"title":"ESO: 7 Earth-sized worlds found in dwarf star system – 3 in habitable zone","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"ESO\u00a0makes a big announcement about a dwarf star with lots of earth-sized planets: Ultracool Dwarf and the Seven Planets Temperate Earth-sized Worlds Found in Extraordinarily Rich Planetary System Astronomers have found a system of seven Earth-sized planets just 40 light-years away. Using ground and space telescopes, including ESO\u2019s Very Large\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/eso1706a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24864,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=24864","url_meta":{"origin":12567,"position":2},"title":"ESO: Third planet found at Proxima Centauri, the star nearest our Sun","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO): New planet detected around star closest to the Sun A team of astronomers using the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope (ESO\u2019s VLT) in Chile have found evidence of another planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/eso1629f1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/eso1629f1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/eso1629f1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/eso1629f1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14236,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14236","url_meta":{"origin":12567,"position":3},"title":"ESO: New exoplanet is good candidate in search for signs of life","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest report from\u00a0ESO\u00a0(European Southern Observatory): Newly Discovered Exoplanet May be Best Candidate in Search for Signs of Life\u00a0 An exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth may be the new holder of the title \u201cbest place to look for signs of life beyond the Solar System\u201d.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/eso1712a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12906,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12906","url_meta":{"origin":12567,"position":4},"title":"Kepler space observatory finds more than 100 new exoplanets","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Kepler space telescope\u00a0continues to find more planets around other stars: NASA\u2019s Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission An international team of astronomers has discovered and confirmed a treasure trove of new worlds using NASA\u2019s Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission. Among the findings tallying 197 initial planet candidates,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"k2_100planet_header[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/k2_100planet_header1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15186,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=15186","url_meta":{"origin":12567,"position":5},"title":"ESO: Nearest temperate world found orbiting quiet star","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest report from ESO (European Southern Observatory): Closest Temperate World Orbiting Quiet Star Discovered ESO\u2019s HARPS instrument finds Earth-mass exoplanet around Ross 128\u00a0 A temperate Earth-sized planet has been discovered only 11 light-years from the Solar System by a team using ESO\u2019s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument. The new world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/eso1736a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12572,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12567\/revisions\/12572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}