Humanity’s remote exploration of alien environments has truly started.
- Amaury Triaud
Embarking on the first attempt at detecting the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system, a team of Cambridge and international researchers discovered that the exoplanets TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c, approximately 40 light-years away, are unlikely to have puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres such as those usually found on gaseous worlds like Jupiter or Saturn.
The lack of a hydrogen-helium envelope increases the Earth-likeliness of these planets and has caused considerable excitement among researchers taking part in the study. The results of their findings are published in the journal Nature.
“Humanity’s remote exploration of alien environments has truly started,” said Amaury Triaud, a research fellow at Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “It is tantalizing to think that with another ten similar observations, we would start distinguishing whether those planets are more Venus-like, more Earth-like, or if they are radically different.”
Researchers observed the planets in near-infrared light and used spectroscopy to decode a change of light as the planets transited in front of their stars. During transit, starlight shines through a planet’s atmosphere making it possible to deduce its chemical makeup.
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Image: Artist's View of Planets Transiting Red Dwarf Star in TRAPPIST-1 System
Credit: NASA
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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