Contemplating the Value of Exoplanets and Fruit Flies

摘要

I am often asked a lot of questions right after a major astronomical discovery is announced. Recently I found myself fielding queries about the TRAPPIST-1 system. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope recently discovered seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a single star (TRAPPIST-1), a red dwarf sun just 40 light-years away. Three of those planets orbit in the dwarf star's habitable zone - a region of space around stars where conditions are right for water to be in its liquid state. Because red dwarfs are the most common stars in the Milky Way, there is the possibility our galaxy is awash with planets similar to our own. This issue of Mercury includes an article by Pat Brennan about the bumper crop of Earth-size planets huddled around a red dwarf star in the TRAPPIST-1 system.