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If you could stand on the surface of the newly discovered Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f, what would you see? Presently, no
Earthling knows for sure, but the
featured illustration depicts a reasoned guess based on observational data taken by
NASA's Sun-orbiting
Spitzer Space Telescope. In 2017, four
more Earth-sized planets were found by Spitzer, including
TRAPPIST-1f, in addition to
three discovered in 2015 from the ground. From the
planet's surface, near the mild
terminator between night and day, you might see water, ice, and rock on the ground, while water-based clouds might hover above. Past the clouds, the small central star
TRAPPIST-1 would appear more red than our
Sun, but angularly larger due to the close orbit. With
seven known Earth-sized planets -- many of which pass near each other -- the
TRAPPIST-1 system is not only a candidate to have life, but
intercommunicating life -- although a
preliminary search has found no
obvious transmissions.
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