A truly staggering announcement from NASA and the European Southern Observatory today. Astronomers have discovered a system of seven Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting a single ultra-cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1, located just 39 light-years away from us.



What makes this discovery so incredibly profound is that three of these worlds are sitting squarely within the habitable zone, where liquid water could theoretically pool on the surface. Because the host star is so small and dim, the planets are huddled extremely close together. If you were standing on the surface of one of them, the neighbouring planets would loom large in the sky, much like the Moon does from Earth.



Read the official NASA press release.



This system is instantly going to become a primary target for the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, which will hopefully be able to sniff out the chemical composition of their atmospheres.