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A whopping seven Earth-size planets were just found orbiting a nearby star
Popular Science ^ | February 22, 2017 | Sarah Fecht

Posted on 02/22/2017 11:21:30 AM PST by C19fan

Planet-hunters are always on the lookout for worlds that look like Earth—rocky planets that are not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to flow on the surface. Now scientists have hit the jackpot, discovering seven Earth-size exoplanets orbiting a single star just 39 light-years away. The star, named TRAPPIST-1, was thought to be home to three exoplanets. But with the help of a variety of observatories—including the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (a.k.a. TRAPPIST, the star's namesake), the Very Large Telescope in Chile, and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope—researchers found four more planets in the system. The planets were discovered as they passed in front of the star, blocking some of its light from Earth's point-of-view.

(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; kepler; planets; science; trappist; trappist1; xplanets
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To bodly go...
1 posted on 02/22/2017 11:21:30 AM PST by C19fan
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To: C19fan

I always was a fan of the Trappist beers....


2 posted on 02/22/2017 11:23:59 AM PST by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: C19fan

Gene Roddenberry is smiling.


3 posted on 02/22/2017 11:25:09 AM PST by Ciexyz (Happy days are here again, with Trump/Pence!)
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To: C19fan

The demotion of humans, as special beings; continues.


4 posted on 02/22/2017 11:26:17 AM PST by cicero2k
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To: C19fan

Let Liberals go there and they’ll screw that up too


5 posted on 02/22/2017 11:27:16 AM PST by Java4Jay (The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people.)
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To: C19fan

Road trip! Who’s bringing the beer?


6 posted on 02/22/2017 11:27:21 AM PST by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: C19fan
Earth First! (We'll strip mine the other planets later.)

"Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)

LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

7 posted on 02/22/2017 11:27:47 AM PST by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
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To: C19fan

Can these planets support Democrat-based life forms?


8 posted on 02/22/2017 11:27:57 AM PST by bobcat62
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To: C19fan

I claim dibs on the planet with the best women.


9 posted on 02/22/2017 11:30:23 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: C19fan

can we send the libtards there?


10 posted on 02/22/2017 11:31:25 AM PST by max americana (For the 9th time FIRED LIBERALS from our company at this election, and every election since 2008)
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To: LonePalm

Earth First! (We’ll strip mine the other planets later.)


I had a bumper sticker that said that. A mining engineer friend had a bunch of them made up.


11 posted on 02/22/2017 11:31:41 AM PST by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: cicero2k

The God I worship is quite capable of creating, and loving, redeeming creatures every bit as wondrous as humans on a planet (or planets!) surrounding every star of the 100 billion in this galaxy and every one of the other 100 billion plus galaxies, too.


12 posted on 02/22/2017 11:32:19 AM PST by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, deport all illegal aliens, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
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To: C19fan
Scenes like this sure to follow


13 posted on 02/22/2017 11:35:19 AM PST by Emergencyawesome
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To: C19fan

Seven class M planets? Mr. Sulu...


14 posted on 02/22/2017 11:36:06 AM PST by Crucial
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To: C19fan
To bodly go...

TO go maybe but to get there? like never.

39ly = 2.29E+14 miles. The fastest space craft we have is the pioneer which is going 82020 miles per hour. That works out to 2.79E+9 hours. Divide by 8760 hours in a year and you get 318,624 years for a one way trip.

15 posted on 02/22/2017 11:36:10 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: C19fan

Near by being a loose term. Cosmically speaking, there is nothing near by.


16 posted on 02/22/2017 11:36:22 AM PST by Phlap (REDNECK@LIBARTS.EDU)
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To: cicero2k

Maybe they are meant for our future domination as a gift from God but He was waiting to let us know at a future date since our ancestors wouldn’t have understood :)

Just because there might be life out there doesn’t mean it’s more advanced than us.

If one looks at the astronomical occurrences needed to have happened for life to exist here and advance as far as it did, I’d say we’re pretty special :)


17 posted on 02/22/2017 11:36:56 AM PST by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: DannyTN
Got them right here:


18 posted on 02/22/2017 11:36:58 AM PST by corkoman
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To: C19fan

Thirty-nine light years away? That would take us what, two thousands years to reach at our present technological level?


19 posted on 02/22/2017 11:38:25 AM PST by Crucial
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To: C19fan

I’ll explore ‘em when I have my new body.


20 posted on 02/22/2017 11:38:26 AM PST by beethovenfan (I always try to maximize my carbon footprint.)
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