Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away. This discovery outside of our solar system is rare because the planets have the winning combination of being similar in size to Earth and being all temperate, meaning they could have water on their surfaces and potentially support life. 3 of these planets are thought to be habitable! They may even have oceans on the surface.
This is all very exciting news. It brings up a lot of new questions. Can we live in a planet other than the earth we've always known? Are there aliens? Are there other similar creatures living on one of these planets? There's a lot we don't know about this incredible and vast universe.
"This is the first time that so many planets of this kind are found around the same star," said MichaëlGillon, lead study author and astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium.The seven exoplanets were all found in tight formation around an ultracool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Estimates of their mass also indicate that they are rocky planets, rather than being gaseous like Jupiter.
Sources: NASA - CNN
