Support NeoGAF

[cameron]

MIT: "Scientists discover potentially habitable planets"

Is there life beyond our solar system? If there is, our best bet for finding it may lie in three nearby, Earth-like exoplanets.

For the first time, an international team of astronomers from MIT, the University of Liège in Belgium, and elsewhere have detected three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star, just 40 light years from Earth. The sizes and temperatures of these worlds are comparable to those of Earth and Venus, and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the solar system. The results are published today in the journal Nature.

The scientists discovered the planets using TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope), a 60-centimeter telescope operated by the University of Liège, based in Chile. TRAPPIST is designed to focus on 60 nearby dwarf stars — very small, cool stars that are so faint they are invisible to optical telescopes. Belgian scientists designed TRAPPIST to monitor dwarf stars at infrared wavelengths and search for planets around them.

The team focused the telescope on the ultracool dwarf star, 2MASS J23062928-0502285, now known as TRAPPIST-1, a Jupiter-sized star that is one-eighth the size of our sun and significantly cooler. Over several months starting in September 2015, the scientists observed the star’s infrared signal fade slightly at regular intervals, suggesting that several objects were passing in front of the star.

With further observations, the team confirmed the objects were indeed planets, with similar sizes to Earth and Venus. The two innermost planets orbit the star in 1.5 and 2.4 days, though they receive only four and two times the amount of radiation, respectively, as the Earth receives from the sun. The third planet may orbit the star in anywhere from four to 73 days, and may receive even less radiation than Earth. Given their size and proximity to their ultracool star, all three planets may have regions with temperatures well below 400 kelvins, within a range that is suitable for sustaining liquid water and life.

Because the system is just 40 light years from Earth, co-author Julien de Wit, a postdoc in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, says scientists will soon be able to study the planets’ atmospheric compositions, as well as assess their habitability and whether life actually exists within this planetary system.

“These planets are so close, and their star so small, we can study their atmosphere and composition, and further down the road, which is within our generation, assess if they are actually inhabited,” de Wit says. “All of these things are achievable, and within reach now. This is a jackpot for the field.”

Bit more info. Ars Technica: "Worlds that could support life are found practically in the Sun’s backyard"

The star is only about the size of Jupiter and much colder and redder than the Sun. Its luminosity is far less than 1 percent that of our star—so faint that, although the "ultracool" dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1 lies less than 40 light-years from Earth, it can only be seen via relatively powerful telescopes.

Yet it is a star worth looking for. Astronomers using a 60cm telescope designed especially to study such stars, and any planets around them, have found this system to contain some of the most habitable exoplanets discovered to date. As European astronomers looked at TRAPPIST-1 from September through December of last year, they discovered slight, periodic dimming that indicates the presence of three worlds which are close to or inside the system's habitable zone. All have radii of between 1.05 and 1.17 that of Earth's radius.

According to the observations published Monday in the journal Nature, the two inner planets orbit the star every 1.51 days and 2.42 days. The innermost planet, TRAPPIST-1b, likely receives about four times the solar radiation from its star than does Earth, and astronomers estimate its surface temperature is probably closer to the higher end of a range between 11 degrees and 127 degrees Celsius. The next planet, TRAPPIST-1c, receives a little more than two times the solar radiation as does Earth and has a surface temperature likely between -30 degrees and 69 degrees Celsius. The researchers speculate these worlds are likely tidally locked and, therefore, even if they have extreme average temperatures, they may have habitable regions along the terminator or poles.

A third planet, TRAPPIST-1d, is more intriguing still. Although astronomers have fewer confirmed observations of this world, they estimate its orbital period is between 4 and 70 days, and it is quite a bit farther out, perhaps 0.146 astronomical units (the Earth-Sun distance) from its star. Nevertheless, between the star's warmth and likely presence of interior tidal heating, they speculate this world probably lies within or just beyond the habitable zone of the star.

The Guardian:

“These are the first temperate Earth-sized planets found outside the solar system, and the first we can study in detail,” said Gillon. “That makes them extremely promising targets for us.” The composition of the planets is not yet known, but the sizes mean they must be solid. “They could be iron-rich like Mercury, or mostly silicate rocks, or extremely icy, like the moons of Jupiter,” said Gillon.

Plans have already been drawn up to study the planets in greater detail. With the Hubble space telescope, the astronomers hope to learn whether the worlds have their own atmospheres. But future instruments will be needed to find out much more about the planets. If they do have atmospheres, then analysing the molecular constituents for water, carbon dioxide and ozone could reveal evidence for life.

Those measurements will be possible from two forthcoming observatories, the European Extremely Large Telescope, which is under construction in the Atacama desert, and the James Webb Space Telescope, Nasa’s new infrared observatory, which is due to launch in 2018. Once they are in operation, astronomers can begin the search for biological activity on the planets. “That’s a giant step in the search for life in the universe,” said Julien de Wit, a co-author on the study at MIT.

This chart shows the stars visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Aquarius. The position of the ultracool dwarf star Trappist-1 is marked. Although it is relatively close to the Sun it is very faint and not visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes. Photograph: ESO/IAU and Sky & Telescope

Nature Journal: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature17448.html

 

[Tabris]

That's the thing that fascinates me so much about astronomy and how time and light work.

Everything you are looking at is in our past. There could be a civilization that rises and falls at the same time as us in a distant star, but we will have never known even if we are looking directly at it (imagining a powerful enough telescope) because it's thousands of light years way and we won't see it until thousands of years in our future.

 

[Deku Tree]

This is huge.

 

[rokkerkory]

Man this sucks, in my lifetime we will not be able to visit any of these planets

fast fwd 200 years please

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

A very exciting development.

 

[Kinitari]

Woah, 40 lightyears away means that we'll be able to get a relatively recent breakdowns of information from these planets. If we see evidence of life... Woo boy. Maybe we'll see space stations!

 

[Scarecrow]

You can tell it's exciting news because there wasn't a "NASA to show something cool in 42 hours" teaser.

 

[Battersea Power Station]

Woah, 40 lightyears away means that we'll be able to get a relatively recent breakdowns of information from these planets. If we see evidence of life... Woo boy. Maybe we'll see space stations!

We can't see (from Earth) if there's life on Jupiter's moons, and that's light-minutes away. It would take hundreds of years for a probe to travel anywhere usefully close to these planets to find potential signs of life.

 

[Palette Swap]

Genuinely exciting.

assess if they are actually inhabited

Wait until in a Croatoan scenario, we find traces of advanced civilizations but no civilized life and still figure it's a good idea to go knock there.

 

[DragonSworne]

So no intelligent life? Otherwise we would have picked up cool radio signals from the planets by now, or have they not checked them yet?

 

[TaterTots]

So no intelligent life? Otherwise we would have picked up cool radio signals from the planets by now, or have they not checked them yet?

This is what I want to know. How long would a signal take to reach these planets? Even if we could do that we may get nothing in return because it may be just fish like creatures or something.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

This is what I want to know. How long would a signal take to reach these planets? Even if we could do that we may get nothing in return because it may be just fish like creatures or something.

Hmmm, good question. This is some back of the envelope math, and it may not be exactly right, but if it's forty light years away, it would take...forty years.

 

[DarkKyo]

This is what I want to know. How long would a signal take to reach these planets? Even if we could do that we may get nothing in return because it may be just fish like creatures or something.

I'm guessing 40 years? And 80 years to "communicate" once with the people there in the unbelievably minuscule chance there is a civ using radio signals alive there now.

 

[Grinchy]

That's the thing that fascinates me so much about astronomy and how time and light work.

Everything you are looking at is in our past. There could be a civilization that rises and falls at the same time as us in a distant star, but we will have never known even if we are looking directly at it (imagining a powerful enough telescope) because it's thousands of light years way and we won't see it until thousands of years in our future.

That's why I think it's silly when people assume that if there were advanced aliens, they would have found us. They'd be subject to the same physical constraints as we are when it comes to finding life in the universe.

 

[Oozer3993]

We can't see (from Earth) if there's life on Jupiter's moons, and that's light-minutes away. It would take hundreds of years for a probe to travel anywhere usefully close to these planets to find potential signs of life.

It's all about where the life is. Europa might have life under its surface in its giant subsurface oceans. That's impossible to tell from Earth. If it had life on its surface, however, that could be detectable.

 

[Bold One]

So no intelligent life? Otherwise we would have picked up cool radio signals from the planets by now, or have they not checked them yet?

if 'they' exist, 'they' may not be using radio signals, I assume the spectrum of signals and waves goes beyond just radio.

 

[Vicetrailia]

The universe really is too big to meet other intelligent life forms in.

 

[Clydefrog]

Great find!

I am laughing at whoever named The European Extremely Large Telescope

 

[Oppo]

Age of Aquarius? huh

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

his chart shows the stars visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Aquarius.

dawning of the age indeed





edit: dammit! beaten

 

[Divvy]

Woah, 40 lightyears away means that we'll be able to get a relatively recent breakdowns of information from these planets. If we see evidence of life... Woo boy. Maybe we'll see space stations!

It's pretty much impossible for us to detect life in planets in the habitable zone with our current level of technology and available telescopes.

Ironically we can detect things much easier when the planets are not in the habitable zone.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

So no intelligent life? Otherwise we would have picked up cool radio signals from the planets by now, or have they not checked them yet?

They could be intelligent...just not technical advanced

 

[Divvy]

They could be intelligent...just not technical advanced

Or too advanced to be using radio waves

 

[Bigboss242]

It's pretty much impossible for us to detect life in planets in the habitable zone with our current level of technology and available telescopes.

Ironically we can detect things much easier when the planets are not in the habitable zone.

Just the universe telling humanity to fuck off don't blame it one bit.

 

[Nowy]

This is what I want to know. How long would a signal take to reach these planets? Even if we could do that we may get nothing in return because it may be just fish like creatures or something.

If we sent out a radio message right now, it would reach these planets during the year 2056. Hypothetically, if there is an intelligent civilization there that intercepted our radio message, and sent one of their own our way, we'd get it during the year 2096.

Our best chance of finding life on exoplanets isn't sending out radio waves though. After all, Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years and there's only been a species advanced enough to communicate via radio waves (or any other type of light waves) for the past 100 years (0.000000002% of the planet's history). The best evidence for life we could reasonably find with current to not so far away technology would be using Spectroscopy to find the composition of exoplanets' atmospheres. If we find one that's close to Earth's, I would bet money on that planet having life.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

Or too advanced to be using radio waves

Touché

Could also be dino roaming creatures there...would we know?

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Or too advanced to be using radio waves

They could be intelligent...just not technical advanced

I doubt both of these. If life exists on any of these planets it's probably not had enough time to evolve to reach a level required for a civilization to form.

According to the author of the article (from the comments):

Good questions. We don't know. The star is estimated to be about 500 million years old so there has been some time for life to begin.

In other words the star is very young, and the planets even younger.

 

[Divvy]

Just the universe telling humanity to fuck off don't blame it one bit.

Only so much as our current Kepler telescope is not powerful enough. They were going to launch the terrestial planet finder telescope, but its funding got cut.

 

[Kai Dracon]

I was under the impression that the real problem with detecting coherent radio signals is signal attenuation.

Popular culture has promoted the idea of SETI listening for an obvious intelligent radio signal from across the galaxy and finding nothing, when in reality we might not be able to detect something we recognize as artificial even if it was originating from a relatively close source.

I believe there's been speculation that in order to detect a signal it would have to be a purposeful beacon designed to powerfully broadcast a simple but recognizable sequence like prime numbers. But random radio broadcasts from other civilizations would be faded to background noise by the time they traveled any significant distance. Thus the fact that we haven't detected anything yet really means very little. The odds of looking at the precise spot, in the right timeframe, to discover a specialized contact broadcast are very small.

 

[Divvy]

I was under the impression that the real problem with detecting coherent radio signals is signal attenuation.

Popular culture has promoted the idea of SETI listening for an obvious intelligent radio signal from across the galaxy and finding nothing, when in reality we might not be able to detect something we recognize as artificial even if it was originating from a relatively close source.

I believe there's been speculation that in order to detect a signal it would have to be a purposeful beacon designed to powerfully broadcast a simple but recognizable sequence like prime numbers. But random radio broadcasts from other civilizations would be faded to background noise by the time they traveled any significant distance. Thus the fact that we haven't detected anything yet really means very little. The odds of looking at the precise spot, in the right timeframe, to discover a specialized contact broadcast are very small.

Pretty much, and if they were making a beacon, they'd be using lasers, not radio waves.

 

[ibyea]

So no intelligent life? Otherwise we would have picked up cool radio signals from the planets by now, or have they not checked them yet?

It wouldn't matter because the 1/r^2 drop off would mean the signal becomes noise anyways.

 

[SwiftDeath]

Oh my god, there is a creature on the planet. LIFE, Extra-terestial Life!

I don't believe this

It appears to be holding up a rectangle object, A SIGN. Intelligence!

It says "Bring back "I love Lucy". Thanks."

Oh

Spoiler

Exciting for sure though

 

[AP90]

I was under the impression that the real problem with detecting coherent radio signals is signal attenuation.

Popular culture has promoted the idea of SETI listening for an obvious intelligent radio signal from across the galaxy and finding nothing, when in reality we might not be able to detect something we recognize as artificial even if it was originating from a relatively close source.

I believe there's been speculation that in order to detect a signal it would have to be a purposeful beacon designed to powerfully broadcast a simple but recognizable sequence like prime numbers. But random radio broadcasts from other civilizations would be faded to background noise by the time they traveled any significant distance. Thus the fact that we haven't detected anything yet really means very little. The odds of looking at the precise spot, in the right timeframe, to discover a specialized contact broadcast are very small.

Just thought of the one Scene from the movie Battleship and the reference to what happened after Columbus discovered the Indians..

 

[FloatingDivider]

Of course Belgians have to name their telescope a backronym for a brand of beer.

 

[Link]

Hmmm, good question. This is some back of the envelope math, and it may not be exactly right, but if it's forty light years away, it would take...forty years.

I'm guessing 40 years? And 80 years to "communicate" once with the people there in the unbelievably minuscule chance there is a civ using radio signals alive there now.

Is that right? I'm no scientist, but sound/radio waves travel a lot slower than light.

 

[cameron]

NASA article on planned observations: "Promising Worlds Found Around Nearby Ultra-cool Dwarf Star"

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and K2, the Kepler spacecraft's second mission, will be observing TRAPPIST-1 and its planets later this year.

Fortuitously, two of these planets are transiting the star on May 4, an event that happens only once every two years as seen from Earth. Astronomers hope to make measurements of the atmospheres of both of these planets and look for evidence of water vapor. The Hubble Space Telescope can characterize the atmospheres of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system by observing them as they pass in front of, or transit, their parent star. Hubble astronomers will use spectroscopy to measure starlight as it filters through a planet’s atmosphere.

K2 will observe TRAPPIST-1 as part of their Campaign 12, which is scheduled to take place from Dec. 15 to March 4, 2017. The data are expected to be available at the public archive the end of May 2017.

K2 will observe tens of transits of the two close-in Earth-sized exoplanets during the approximately 80-day campaign. The continuous and multiple observations will allow for measurements of predicted transit timing variations – the gravitational interaction between planets that cause transits to occur slightly earlier or slightly later than predicted. This will provide estimates of the masses of these exoplanets. Using K2’s mass measurements and TRAPPIST's ground-based size measurements, astronomers can calculate or constrain the density of the exoplanets to determine if they could be rocky worlds.

K2’s observations will also help scientists determine the orbital period of the third planet, and help find any additional small transiting objects in the system.

The TRAPPIST-1 system is an ideal target for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb’s infrared sensitivity will be able to detect carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other molecules common in the atmospheres of the rocky planets in our own solar system.

Comparison of primary mirror sizes:

From the ESO site, first light of E-ELT was pushed into 2024. Pooh.

 

[Netherscourge]

3 planets, eh?

Isn't that the Interstellar plot?

Check out 3 planets and set off a beacon if one of them is habitable?

Spoiler

Assuming Matt Damon doesn't go fuck-it-all-up crazy...

 

[Arthr2ShdsJcksn]

Isn't that where Luke was? We need to get there, and fast.

Maybe not exactly, but we still need to try. He's our only hope.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

So in other worlds, nothing to se here

Sigh

Didnt nasa make a promise that we'll find other life within 25 years?

 

[felipeko]

Is that right? I'm no scientist, but sound/radio waves travel a lot slower than light.

Sound travels slower (and requires matter to travel), radio is electromagnetic wave, same thing as light, just another frequency.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Is that right? I'm no scientist, but sound/radio waves travel a lot slower than light.

Radio waves are light, actually.

Well, okay, technically radio waves and visible light are just two different types of electromagnetic radiation, but yeah, they both go the speed of light in a vacuum. Despite radio being used to carry sound in every day life, it isn't actually sound. That's why it can travel through space

 

[Jackbooted]

The orbits on those planets though...I wonder what speed those planets are flying at?

 

[Iksenpets]

So no intelligent life? Otherwise we would have picked up cool radio signals from the planets by now, or have they not checked them yet?

I wouldn't put much hope into technological civilization on these planets. In this small-star, tight-orbit set up, the planets are probably all tidally locked to the star, with a hot hemisphere and a cold hemisphere. Life would probably be limited to the thin band on each planet where the two sides meet, so no species evolving there would probably have access to the sort of resources necessary to reach an advanced state. Still, if there's life at all that's a huge deal.

 

[krang]

This is huge.

I'd say it's adequately-sized, myself.

 

[krang]

So no intelligent life? Otherwise we would have picked up cool radio signals from the planets by now, or have they not checked them yet?

If any aliens have been listening in for the last 100 years or so, they're probably adopting the "ssshhh...keep quiet and they might just go away" protocol.

 

[WillyFive]

So in other worlds, nothing to se here

Sigh

Didnt nasa make a promise that we'll find other life within 25 years?

No.

Seth Shostak of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute said that he thinks they could find life within 25 years if they continue the method of electromagnetic signals due to how much a bigger range they could observe. That's hardly a promise.

 

[Divvy]

The orbits on those planets though...I wonder what speed those planets are flying at?

It's a red dwarf so the star itself is very small, so the habitable zone is far smaller than in our solar system.

 

[JoJoShabadoo]

That's the thing that fascinates me so much about astronomy and how time and light work.

Everything you are looking at is in our past. There could be a civilization that rises and falls at the same time as us in a distant star, but we will have never known even if we are looking directly at it (imagining a powerful enough telescope) because it's thousands of light years way and we won't see it until thousands of years in our future.

I know this is like Astronomy 101 and simplified in shows like Cosmos, and an ignorant question, but how exactly does this work? My brain just freezes when trying to comprehend anything related to the universe.

 

[Divvy]

I know this is like Astronomy 101 and simplified in shows like Cosmos, and an ignorant question, but how exactly does this work? My brain just freezes when trying to comprehend anything related to the universe.

Light travels as photons which travels at a fixed 299 792 458 m / s. At this speed, it would take those photons forty years to reach us. So anything that we see actually happened forty years ago. The further a light source, the farther into the past we are seeing. Similarily, any data we send to this planet will have a forty year delay. This speed of light is the hard limit on how fast any particle/wave can travel so we'll always have this delay in communication.

 

[CaviarMeths]

I know this is like Astronomy 101 and simplified in shows like Cosmos, and an ignorant question, but how exactly does this work? My brain just freezes when trying to comprehend anything related to the universe.

Your vision is light bouncing off of objects and traveling to your eyes to be processed by your brain as visual information, shapes, colors, etc. We don't notice it because light moves so insanely fast, but there actually is a time delay on everything you see. Technically, everything you see happened in the past because what you see is not objects themselves, but light bouncing off those objects. That's why you can't see in the dark.

Stuff that's really far away, like stars, are so far away that light literally takes many years, even thousands of years, to reach Earth. Therefore, looking through space is also like looking through a time machine. The light you're seeing bouncing off of distant objects in the galaxy did so a thousand years ago and is just reaching your eyes now. The stars you see may not even exist anymore, exploded into supernovas hundreds of years ago.

Here's a neat thought exercise - Let's say there was a giant mirror 1000 light years away from Earth. If you look at it from Earth through a telescope, you would be seeing Earth... 2000 years ago. Spy on some Romans!