LaSillaObservatory

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  • ESO/M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger

    Three Earth-sized planets exist in the Aquarius constellation

    by 
    Timothy J. Seppala
    Timothy J. Seppala
    05.02.2016

    It's the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Well, the discovery of three planets orbiting a cooler-than-the-Sun dwarf star located in the Aquarius constellation, according to NASA. A number of telescopes, including the TRAPPIST at the La Silla Observatory in Chile were used in this trio, and the star itself bears the name TRAPPIST-1 for pretty obvious reasons. The planets are Earth-like in size and two of them orbit the star roughly every 1.5 and 2.4 days. The third one has proven a bit harder to track, with NASA saying its orbit is anywhere between 4.5 to 73 days.