Possibility of Life on Three Newly Discovered Planets

Although humanity's long-standing dream, as well as that of science fiction writers, of finding water on Mars may never become a reality, astronomers announced on Monday that they have discovered three Earth-like planets orbiting a star near the solar system that may have water and life. According to USA Today, the size and temperature of these planets are similar to those of Earth and Venus. Astronomers believe that among known planets, these three have the highest chance of harboring life beyond Earth. In all three of these planets, there is a possibility of having regions with suitable and stable temperatures for life. This recent discovery has been published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. These three planets are orbiting an "ultracool dwarf star" located forty light-years away from Earth. Since these planets are located outside the solar system, they are referred to as exoplanets. Dr. Emmanuel Jean, one of the authors of this article who teaches astronomy at the University of Liège in Belgium, states: "This is a serious shift in the search for life in other parts of the universe." According to Jean, the existence of orbits around ultracool dwarf stars had previously only existed in physical and astronomical theories, but now we not only have a short distance to this star, but we have also found three orbits around it. This significant discovery was made by a group of astronomers from MIT, NASA, the University of California in San Diego, and the University of Liège in Belgium. This group of scientists focused the TRAPPIST telescope, located in Belgium, on a star now known as TRAPPIST-1. This star is one-eighth the size of our sun and its heat is much less than that of the sun. The newly discovered planets were identified when their rotation around the star created small spots in the telescope's view. Despite the proximity of this star to Earth, due to its dimness and redness, it is not visible to the naked eye or even through ordinary telescopes.