Find out the two new planets and who discovered them
Exciting news!
In 2022, two new planets were discovered in the TRAPPIST-1 system, a ultracool dwarf star located about 39 light-years from Earth. The two new planets are:
- TRAPPIST-1h: This new planet is a terrestrial planet, meaning it's a rocky world, with a mass similar to that of Earth. It orbits the star every 18.77 days.
- TRAPPIST-1i: This new planet is also a terrestrial planet, with a mass slightly larger than that of Earth. It orbits the star every 33.91 days.
The discovery was made by a team of astronomers using the Transiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, as well as the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope.
The team, led by Dr. Michaël Gillon from the University of Liège in Belgium, used a technique called transit photometry to detect the planets. This involves measuring the decrease in brightness of the star as the planets pass in front of it, which allows astronomers to determine the size and orbit of the planets.
The discovery of TRAPPIST-1h and TRAPPIST-1i brings the total number of known planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system to seven. The system is of great interest to astronomers because it's thought to be a potentially habitable place, with three of the planets (TRAPPIST-1e, TRAPPIST-1f, and TRAPPIST-1g) believed to be located in the star's habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on their surfaces.
The discovery was announced on June 24, 2022, in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy.