Posted on 05/07/2016 5:39:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Three new found worlds orbit the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, a mere 40 light-years away. Their transits were first detected by the Belgian robotic TRAnsiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope, TRAPPIST, at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The newly discovered exoplanets are all similar in size to Earth. Because they orbit very close to their faint, tiny star they could also have regions where surface temperatures allow for the presence of liquid water, a key ingredient for life. Their tantalizing proximity to Earth makes them prime candidates for future telescopic explorations of the atmospheres of these potentially habitable planets. All three worlds appear in this artist's vision, an imagined scene near the horizon of the system's outermost planet. Of course, the inner planet is transiting the dim, red, nearly Jupiter-sized parent star.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Illustration Credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser]
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40 light years distance for a satellite observation of this star in nearly impossible. According to Al Gore and company, we will all be toast long before that so why waste money on sending out a satellite to send back pictures to a world that doesn’t exist, or at least without humans to receive them.
NASA has really got to get their priorities straight, and get their P.R. asses out of the Islamic world too.
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