NASA Trappist exoplanet discovery is big news!
Like many meteorologists, I am also fascinated with astronomy. When I heard NASA was doing another "major announcement" today, I rolled my eyes a little -- the list of underwhelming press conferences of recent could fill a galaxy. Today's release, however, was the type of statement that may go down in the history books as the first major development in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Essentially what they said was that they have discovered a solar system very similar to ours, with at least three planets in the habitable zone that are roughly the same size and receiving the same amount of light from their sun as Earth. Although several thousands exoplanets have been discovered before had so many Earth-qualifying planets in one system been seen and at a (relatively) short distance of 40 light years.
Unfortunately, 40 light years will take us roughly 700,000 years to get there with our current technology, but they should have been receiving our TV & radio broadcasts for some time now. Perhaps they have light-speed travel and are already on their way; that would save us some time!
P.S.: If you haven't already, don't forget to get your Trappist-1e poster!
