NASA discoves unreachable planet, various other findings

Kati Finnegan, Staff Writer

In September of last year, NASA confirmed the discovery of Kepler-186f, a planet in a habitual zone 500 million lightyears away from Earth. The planet is unreachable, but an even larger discovery revealed itself when telescopes detected seven planets similar to Earth.
TRAPPIST-1, named after the telescope that discovered the planets in Chile, is composed of seven planet orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star. The star is cold enough to allow liquid water to survive on planet closest to it. NASA scientists believe the surface of all seven planets are rocky.
Some TRAPPIST-1 planets are close enough together that if one stood on the surface of one and looked up one would be able to make out large geographical features on the surface of a neighboring planet.
Astronomers have hypothesized the planets may be tidally locked, meaning that one side of the planet is permanently facing the star. This means that the weather patterns in the system would be wildly different to our own.
In 2018 NASA will release an even more advanced telescope the James Webb Space Telescope, which will allow astronomers to detect chemical fingerprints on the surface of the planet. Because of the telescope’s sensitivity, they could detect traces of water, methane, oxygen, ozone, and other components of a planet’s atmosphere.
Scientists can use this data, as well as analyze the planet’s temperatures and surface areas, to determine whether or not these planets are actually habitual.