TRAPPIST-1 tagged posts

Ramses M. Ramirez and Lisa Kaltenegger. A Volcanic Hydrogen Habitable Zone. Astrophysical Journal Letters, February 2017 DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa60c8

Hunting for habitable exoplanets now may be easier: Cornell University astronomers report that hydrogen pouring from volcanic sources on planets throughout the universe could improve the chances of locating life in the cosmos. Planets located great distances from stars freeze over. “On frozen planets, any potential life would be buried under layers of ice, which would make it really hard to spot with telescopes,” said Ramses Ramirez, Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute. “But if the surface is warm enough – thanks to volcanic hydrogen and atmospheric warming – you could have life on the surface, generating a slew of detectable signatures.”

Combini...

This artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth.  In this view one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of its tiny and dim parent star. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

These worlds have sizes and temps similar to Venus and Earth and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System. They are the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star. A team used the Belgian TRAPPIST telescope to observe the star 2MASS J23062928-0502285 aka TRAPPIST-1...