TRAPPIST-1 System (Artist’s Illustration — Feb. 2018)

Abstract Concept of TRAPPIST-1 System

TRAPPIST-1 System This artist's concept appeared on the Feb. 23, 2017 cover of the journal Nature announcing that the nearby star TRAPPIST-1, an ultra-cool dwarf, has seven Earth-sized planets orbiting it. Two of the planets were discovered in 2016 by TRAPPIST (the Transiting...

Starlight Absorption

Starlight Yields Clues To Exoplanets’ Atmospheres Astronomers used Hubble to analyze light from the nearby star TRAPPIST-1 that passed through the atmospheres of four Earth-sized planets in the star’s habitable zone. This zone is a region at a distance from the star where liquid...

Spectra of Four TRAPPIST-1 Planets

Spectra Offer Clues To Makeup of Exoplanets’ Atmospheres These spectra show the chemical makeup of the atmospheres of four Earth-size planets orbiting within or near the habitable zone of the nearby star TRAPPIST-1. The habitable zone is a region at a distance from the star...

Hubble Observes Atmospheres of TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanets in the Habitable Zone

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have conducted the first spectroscopic survey of Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system’s habitable zone. Hubble reveals that at least the inner five planets do not seem to contain puffy, hydrogen-rich atmospheres similar to...