7 new planets discovered and what happened to Asteroid 2016 WF9?

Seven new exo-planets discovered.

There was some exciting news last week in the form of NASA’s announcement of 7 new earth sized exo-planets being discovered. The discovery has sparked much media attention and many speculations of what it could mean for the future search of potential habitable planets. NASA announced that this is the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star.

These exoplanets orbit an ultracool dwarf star, known as TRAPPIST-1, in the constellation Aquarius. It is located about 40 light years away from Earth, close by astronomical standards, but about 44 million years away at the average cruising speed of a commercial passenger jet.

It has been speculated that all seven planets could have liquid water under the right atmospheric conditions. However, three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water. Water is commonly thought to be one of the key prerequisites for extraterrestrial life. Scientists hope to scan the planets’ atmospheres for possible chemical fingerprints of life, in the near future.

For those of you familiar with the Drake equation, or have read my “The odds of alien life existing” (Found here https://azeriusblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/11/the-odds-of-alien-life-existing/ ), would know that this discovery effects the equation a great deal. Not only is this 7 more potential habitable planets to add to the equation, but that amount to orbit the same star is previously unheard of. This suggests that many more systems like this could exist, increasing the amount of potential habitable planets, and in turn increasing the number of potential intelligent civilisations within the universe exponentially.

 

What happened to Asteroid 2016 WF9?

Those of you that were aware of Asteroid 2016 WF9, or read my post “Asteroid incoming. Is the end nigh?” (found here https://azeriusblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/asteroid-incoming-is-the-end-nigh/ ), are probably wondering what happened to it? For a quick recap, the asteroid was either supposed to pass the earth or strike it, causing our destruction, on the 25^th of February. Despite all of the media attention, weeks before the incoming asteroid, nothing has been officially announced as to what happened with the asteroid.

I think it is safe to assume that the asteroid has safely passed us at the predicted distance from earth. I think that this further proves that the mainstream media will choose to dramitise and misinform with the only goal to gain an audience. I also think that it is safe to assume that we can all take any doomsday theories with a pinch of salt.

 

Thank you for reading, this was just a quick update on some exciting news going on. You can expect some full articles, on some interesting subjects, coming from me very soon. Have a great day everyone.