NASA Scientist: Discovery Of New Planets Hints That Finding Another Earth A Matter Of When, Not If
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Astronomers have been finding planets orbiting other starts for the past 20 years, but nothing like this.
For the first time, seven earth-sized planets have been found orbiting a single star. The discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 system was published Wednesday in the journal Nature, and announced at a news briefing at NASA Headquarters in D.C.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope spotted it. It's about 40 light years, or 235 trillion miles, from Earth.
"Three of these planets... are all in the habitable zone, where liquid water can pool on the surface," says Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
"The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second earth is not just a matter of if, but when."
The planets can only be imagined by an artists, because they can't yet be seen directly. Rather, they're inferred by watching the star's brightness dip as the planets pass in front. That reveals their size and mass, which hints at what they're made of -- gas or rock.
"So if we zoom out from the host star, you'll see all seven planets with the habitable zone," says Nikole Lewis, of the Space Telescope Science Institute. "The innermost planet in the habitable zone is TRAPPIST 1-E. It's very close in size to Earth... it also receives about the same amount of light."
"I'd say what the team is most excited about, although it's still a bit in the future, is the James Webb Telescope, which will launch later in 2018" says Sara Seager, an MIT planetary scientist. "We're going to use the James Webb to search for gases, gases that don't belong, that might be produced by life. Such as oxygen, ozone and methane and a whole bunch of other gases."
What the James Webb will be looking hardest for in the atmospheres of other planets are signs of industrial pollution.
Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook