TRAPPIST-1 system

[Adam Dray]

7 Earth-Size Planets Identified in Orbit Around a Dwarf Star

New York Times

Not just one, but seven Earth-size planets that could potentially harbor life have been identified orbiting a tiny star not too far away, offering the first realistic opportunity to search for biological signs of alien life outside of the solar system.

The planets orbit a dwarf star named Trappist-1, about 40 light years, or about 235 trillion miles, from Earth. That is quite close, and by happy accident, the orientation of the orbits of the seven planets allows them to be studied in great detail.

One or more of the exoplanets — planets around stars other than the sun — in this new system could be at the right temperature to be awash in oceans of water, astronomers said, based on the distance of the planets from the dwarf star.


(read more)

 

[Whipsnade]

So this must be the 2/22 NASA announcement everyone has been chatting about.

Absolutely fascinating. Once again, reality trumps sysgen!

 

[aramis]

M8V system - Red dwarf - with all 7 inside the Orbit 1 ring...

 

[Spartan159]

I smell Ancient intervention.

 

[Whipsnade]

... all 7 inside the Orbit 1 ring...

The outermost planet has a 20 day "year".

 

[Adam Dray]

I smell Ancient intervention.

Ha! Not necessary!

The planets have integer harmonic resonance (I made that term up, but it gets to the gist of it). According to the article, that suggests the planets formed farther out and slowly got pulled into a stable state.

Prob'ly all tidally locked, though.

 

[BlackBat242]

So... 7 monks around a dwarf. :devil:

Sounds like a Monty Python take on Snow White!

 

[Jonendsn]

Love the fact that there are 7 roughly Earth-sized planets orbiting a dwarf, inside the equivalent orbit of Jupiter's ninth moon. Orbit numbers should perhaps be calculated proportionate to stellar mass?

Anyway, this is essentially a super-Jovian system, with 3+ actual planets in the dwarf's Goldilocks zone.

That is good gaming.

Since so many stars in the galaxy are red dwarfs, I think it's awesome to see a useful system surrounding one irl.

 

[Jonendsn]

Also, this could be confusing.

http://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-sc...on-for-planets-and-it-could-change-everything

I like my moons separate to my planets.

 

[Enoki]

Easy peasy to make in the existing Traveller system generators...

Simply make the planets satellites of the star treating it as a large gas giant. Problem solved.

 

[BlackBat242]

The diameter of Jupiter at its equator is 142,984 km

The diameter of Trappist-1 at its equator is ~11% of that of Sol* - or 153,195 km (‎1,392,684 km x .11)


* also described as "less than 1/8 the diameter of Sol", which would be a maximum diameter of 174,085 km.

 

[McPerth]

A true find in any 4X game...

 

[Enoki]

Maybe somebody with more energy and data than I could do a "Habitable zone" data chart for class M stars based on their planets being satellites like a large gas giant rather than in the normal orbits.

 

[Supplement Four]

M8V system - Red dwarf - with all 7 inside the Orbit 1 ring...

It's the Firefly system!

Or...maybe the Colonies (the other 5 are satellites of the seven). Have the NASA guys look for Battlestars.

 

[Condottiere]

In the light of the existence of Alpha Piscis Austrini, perhaps the Hobbitable zone.

 

[Reynard]

Problem is the system is only 500 million years old. Earth at that age was absolutely alien and inhospitable to life as we have today. Those worlds around Trappist-1 would be at least Atmosphere A until life develops to create an oxidizing environment.

 

[kilemall]

Problem is the system is only 500 million years old. Earth at that age was absolutely alien and inhospitable to life as we have today. Those worlds around Trappist-1 would be at least Atmosphere A until life develops to create an oxidizing environment.

Which also means it may be ethical to terraform since we wouldn't be destroying unique lifeforms.

 

[aramis]

Problem is the system is only 500 million years old. Earth at that age was absolutely alien and inhospitable to life as we have today. Those worlds around Trappist-1 would be at least Atmosphere A until life develops to create an oxidizing environment.

Just saw a nat geo bit today - the oldest microfossils date to between 3.77 and 4.26 BYA; Earth is about 4.75 BYA; the THeia impact is postulated to be about 4.5 BYA. Strand forming bacteria 250 MY after the Theia impact?

The great oxygen (event/catastrophe/Mass_Extinction) was about 2.1 BYA.

It's entirely possible that cyanobacteria might have happened far earlier; they could never happen... but Nat Geo mentioned that the Cyanobacteria isn't significantly more complex than the earlier bacteria, it's just got that one "broken" haem that converts light, water and CO2 into sugar...

... and another quirk to convert saccharides, oxygen, and water into ATP.

That combination is what generates the GOE and its mass extinction.

It's plausible but unlikely that it could have happened. It's VERY plausible that there could be recognizable clustering monocellular life.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article...-life-thrived-earth-about-4-billion-years-ago

 

[Reynard]

Now that I got all realist and dull, I need to get as much information available on these 7 worlds and build a TRAVELLER system which does not recognize stars in near proximity of a region as being of very different stages of age and development. Maybe either MegaTraveller World Builder's Handbook or T5 with their more detailed system creation.

 

[ShapeShifter]

Which also means it may be ethical to terraform since we wouldn't be destroying unique lifeforms.

Ethical?! Our motto is "We endanger species." Nuke 'em from orbit.
:rofl: