Seven Earth-like planets found around a single star: Things you need to know

The US space agency NASA has discovered another 'solar system' - seven Earth-like planets orbiting a small star in a galaxy 40 light years away.

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

New Delhi: The US space agency NASA has discovered a new solar system filled with seven Earth-like planets that could support life. The discovery is one of  the most promising hunting grounds so far for life beyond our solar system.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found that the planets are as large as Earth and are in a "habitable zone".

• All seven Earth-like planets roughly match the size and mass of Earth and are almost certainly rocky. And three of them are perfectly perched to harbour life-nurturing oceans of water
• The exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile.
• TRAPPIST-1is a small, dim celestial body in the constellation Aquarius.
• It is located about 40 light years, which is 235 trillion miles, away from Earth. These planets are scientifically known as exoplanets as they are located outside our solar system.
• The diameter of TRAPPIST-1 is about 8 percent of the sun's size which makes its Earth-sized planets appear large as they parade past.
• Scientists have measured the density of six of the planets and say further research will show if they have water on their surface.
• The mass of the seventh planet is yet to be measured and scientists say it is possible that it would be covered in ice.
• NASA said that It is possible that all seven planets have water, "the key to life as we know it, under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone,"
• NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared telescope that trails Earth, was used for studying TRAPPIST-1 because the star glows brightest in infrared light. Further studies involved the Hubble Space Telescope.