TRAPPIST-1 System Announcement
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Overview
TRAPPIST-1 is a ultra-cool dwarf star and its planetary system discovered by the Belgian optic robotic telescope with the same name in May 2016 and publicly announced by NASA on February 22th, 2017. Located approximately 40 light-years away from Earth, the star has seven Earth-like planets orbiting around it.
Background
On February 21st, 2017, NASA tweeted a message about an upcoming press conference to be held on the following day at 1 p.m. (EST), along with an artist's rendering of an Earth-like planet. The message was immediately met with excitement on Twitter and the rest of social media, as well as online news outlets, many of whom speculated whether the space agency is preparing to announce the discovery of alien life. On February 22nd, NASA announced a major update on its recent discovery of TRAPPIST-1, an ultra-cool dwarf star located about 40 light-years away from Earth in the Aquarius constellation, during which the scientists revealed there are seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the star, including three that lie within the circumstellar habitable zone where liquid water and life. All but one of the seven planets are likely thought to be rocky planets.
TRAPPIST
The TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope–South (TRAPPIST) is a Belgian optic robotic telescope that specializes in scanning the sky in search of comets and exoplanets. Operated by a team of astronomers at the University of Liège in Belgium and located at the La Silla Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile, the telescope went online in 2010, and after six years of operation, it confirmed the discovery of a red dwarf star with planets in the habitable zone, which came to be known as TRAPPIST-1, in May 2016.
Developments
Following the announcement, the news of the discovery quickly spread across the social and news media outlets; the press release was posted on the subreddit /r/space, gaining upwards of 33,000 upvotes in the span of three hours[2], while many others shared their reactions on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #trappist1.[3]
Search Interest
External References
[1] NASA – NASA.gov / Posted on 2-22-2017
[2] NASA – NASA to Host News Conference on Discovery Beyond Our Solar System
[3] NASA – NASA Telescope Reveals Largest Batch of Earth-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets Around Single Star
[4] Twitter Moment – NASA found 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting a nearby star
[5] Reddit – NASA's Big Announcement: 7 Earth-Like Planets Orbit One Nearby Star / Posted on 2-22-2017
[6] Twitter – #trappist1 / Posted on 2-22-2017
[7] The Atlantic – Astronomers Have Found Planets in the Habitable Zone of a Nearby Star
[9] CNET – 11 Twitter reactions to news of the Trappist-1 star system
[10] QZ – What life would be like on the seven newly discovered Earth-like planets
[11] Mashable – It's not aliens. It's never aliens. Stop saying it's aliens
[12] Twitter – @NASA's Tweet
[13] News.com.au – A mysterious NASA post has prompted ridiculous alien conspiracy theories
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