3 new Earth-sized planets offer best chance of finding life beyond Solar System (VIDEO)

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rt.com - Published time: 2 May, 2016 18:23

A team of astronomers have discovered three new “exoplanets” orbiting around a nearby ultracool dwarf star some 40 light years from earth.

Details of the planets were outlined in research published in the journal Nature, and show how Earth-sized planets were detected by a Belgian robotic telescope based in Chile.

Also known as “TRAPPIST-1”, the dwarf star is considered to be part of the “Earth’s neighborhood” and is believed to be 500 million years old with a cooler temperature than the sun.

Michael Gillon, one of the authors of the study, said dwarf stars such as TRAPPIST-1 are common in the Milky Way, but this is the first time planets have been tracked in the vicinity of one of them...

Read more: https://www.rt.com/viral/341617-new-planets-discovered-life/