When will astronomers unveil the truth about the seven planets in 'solar system 2.0'?
Given that the star is much dimmer than our sun, that may not affect temperatures too much, but it drastically affects the conditions on the planets. For example, the closest planet, TRAPPIST-1b, orbits its star in 1.9 Earth days. That's a very short year. On TRAPPIST-1h, the farthest, a year takes just shy of 19 days. What's more, all of the planets are likely tidally locked, much like the moon is to Earth, so only one side ever gets daylight.
Despite these differences, TRAPPIST-1 remains the top exoplanet target for JWST because of its diversity of rocky planets. And although it's one of the most-studied planetary systems, scientists still think TRAPPIST-1 has a lot more secrets to reveal.TRAPPIST-1 the only star system we know with seven potentially Earth-like planets, but it's far from being the. That honor goes to Proxima Centauri, at 4.24 light-years away from Earth.
So why the fascination with TRAPPIST-1, which is 10 times farther?"Proxima does not transit and it's transiting exoplanets that we need," Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at Cornell University, told Space.com. Our line of sight to the TRAPPIST-1 system is perfect, and our telescopes can see its seven planets crossing the disk of the star.
"The closest transiting planets give us the most looping signal, which is why TRAPPIST-1 is one of our favorite systems," Kaltenegger said. Astronomers can watch the TRAPPIST-1 planets go round and round.
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