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The TRAPPIST-1 system is made up seven roughly Earth-sized planets orbiting a dwarf star around 39 light-years away and is often hailed as the most likely place for life outside our solar system that we know of. A new study offers further insight into each TRAPPIST planet's biological properties and the signs are encouraging. The new research comes from scientists around the globe, including University of Bern in Germany, the Sorbonne in France, Cambridge, NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and others. Their paper, "The nature of TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanets," shows that the planets don't have an excess of hydrogen. This...

For starters, to call a planet “Earth-like” generally means that it is similar in composition to Earth. This is where the term “terrestrial” really comes into play, as it refers to a rocky planet that is composed primarily of silicate rock and metals which are differentiated between a metal core and a silicate mantle and crust. ... What this does not mean, at least not automatically, is that the planet is habitable in the way Earth is. Simply being terrestrial in nature is not an indication that the planet has a suitable atmosphere or a warm enough climate to support...

BOULDER - When Harvard University astronomer Zoë Leinhardt stares up at the star-spangled night sky, she finds it hard to believe there aren't other Earthlike planets out there, perhaps teeming with life. "It seems unlikely that we're that special in the universe," Leinhardt, a post-doctoral fellow, said Monday at a NASA astrobiology conference.

New evidence for nearby Solar-like planetary system PARTICLE PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY RESEARCH COUNCIL NEWS RELEASE Posted: December 1, 2003 Astronomers at the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Councils UK Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC) at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh have produced compelling new evidence that Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky, has a planetary system around it which is more like our own Solar System than any other so far discovered. All of the hundred or so planets that have been discovered around other stars have been very large gaseous (Jupiter-like) planets orbiting close to their star. This...

Deadly Dance: Giant Planet Found Orbiting Huge Star By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 23 January 2003 A large planet recently found orbiting a distant star serves as a preview for the likely frying fate that awaits our own planet. The star, called HD 47536, is more than 23 times the diameter of our Sun. It is the largest star ever found to harbor a planet. The discovery was announced Wednesday. The planet is five to 10 times heavier than Jupiter and orbits the star more than twice as far as Earth is from...

Astronomers on Brink of Watershed in Planet Discoveries By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 24 June 2002 WASHINGTON, D.C. - The first phase of a two-decade hunt for planets around other stars ended this month with announcements of the discovery of two planets in Jupiter-like orbits, proving that our solar system has cousins, at least of the distant variety. Now it is census time. The world's top planet hunters are rushing headlong into Phase II, during which they expect the number of known extrasolar planets to rise dramatically from its present total of about...