Another earth: 7 exoplanets, 3 earthlike, orbiting brown dwarf gives hope to scientists and space enthusiasts.

 
Gif of original data that amazingly gives scientists enough detail to find 7 confirmed regular dimmings of a star that hint at habitable exoplanets passing between Earth and TRAPPIST-1


 On Feb. 22, 2017 NASA released a report of seven earth sized exoplanets orbiting a star a system 40 light years away from our solar system called TRAPPIST-1. Observed with ESA's Very Large Telescope in Chile, and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.  All rocky in composition by measuring density through the star's "wobble" and 3 of these rocky planets orbit the star at a distance where liquid water should exist, a feature necessary for earth-life. The future significance might be huge for life itself.

NASA infographic showing middle habitable zone in green. 

In this most recent discovery by NASA, many space enthusiasts such as myself have found hope, as it raises the probabilities of a nearby earth.  Thomas Zurbuchen said to the New York times,"The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second earth is not just a matter of if, but when."


   It's important to note that these planets were found by measuring the timings of a star dimming at regular intervals, suggesting a planet passing in front of the star and occluding some of the light. We only have a glimpse of something much deeper, but from these measurements, scientists can find the size of the planets, and through orbital mechanics math, find the length of years. The years are incredibly short, as Trappist A the star, is Only a bit larger than Jupiter, and the planets resemble a Jovian moon system.

One or more of the planets could have water on their surface, a necessary building block for life.

In a video about the star system NPG Press claimed, "With the next generation of telescopes such as the ESA European Extremely Large telescope, and the NASA ESA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers could observe signs of water in the atmospheres of these planets, the presence of life also leaves unique chemical signals in a planet's atmosphere, which could possibly be detected in these nearby worlds.

NASA infographic with data showing striking similarity between Trappist-1E, and F. 

   Dwarf stars like Trappist-1 are very common in our galaxy with most expected to host earth sized planets. The search for life may find success in a system just like this one."
 This implies that we'll see much more data about this system and many more in the years to come.
And we're only seeing the exoplanets that are lined up with earth, with this observation method we're only detecting what this I estimate to be one 70th or less of the possible aligned exoplanets, and by the words of Carl Sagan there are more starts in the Milky Way galaxy than grains of sand on all the beaches of earth.
It's things like this that make me happy to be human in the digital age.


Author's extrapolation follows:
 Well, the internet is abuzz, so it's time to talk about it.
When I look up at the night sky I see a few of the brightest stars in the sky, they form constellations and I wonder if anyone is up there looking out wondering at it all as well. If we're alone, what if it's our destiny to inhabit the stars? With near-future technology and a lot of collaboration, we could do it.
    We could make an orbital fuel station, AI, build huge boosters so we get there before the next few hundred years, and have a small final computer of a ship the size of a fist and store it with data that could build nanobots once it gets to a planet. It could have instructions to build a base, refineries, robots,  and maybe eventually print human embryos and raise a few Adam and Eves in a nursery, this method would be far easier than sending habitable interstellar ships, those would require thousands of years of travel, and would be too heavy to send at high speed. and humans aren't emotionally stable in small spaces hibernating computers are stable.
With solar sails just atoms thick, reflecting light, we could get most of the acceleration done, some authors have claimed that a small kilogram autonomous vehicle could be pushed to a percentage of lightspeed by solar sailing alone. By slowing down to get closer to the sun with a Venus assist and speeding up away from the intense sunlight near the sun one could optimize a trajectory using a more efficient Hohmann transfer in addition to a Jupiter assist to reach anywhere in the local stellar neighborhood within the realm of a civilization's long term stability.
    While currently the realm of science fiction, science fiction has recently been followed less than 100 years later by science fact. Humanity could send seed ships to these distant earths and our chances of long term survival, and life's long term chance of survival would rise. This red dwarf is of particular interest thanks to it's longevity. Because of it's small size and elemental composition, it is expected to outlast the sun engulfing the earth, and it's still quite young.



Sources:
NASA.gov
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around

Vox Media Group
http://www.vox.com/2017/2/22/14698030/nasa-seven-exoplanet-discovery-trappist-1

The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/science/trappist-1-exoplanets-nasa.html?_r=0

NGP Press
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxbH-5EZQak