Weird Exoplanets
This is the text version of the interactive 3D documentary. 한국어
All exoplanets › Part 1: Close neighbors
TRAPPIST-1 system
Seven Earth-sized planets packed inside a space smaller than Mercury’s orbit
View in 3D · narrated- Distance
- 41 light-years (about 390 trillion km, 41 years at light speed)
- Type
- Seven rocky, Earth-sized planets
- Size
- About 0.8 to 1.1 times Earth’s width
- Star
- TRAPPIST-1 (a tiny red dwarf)
- Year (orbit)
- About 1.5 to 19 days
- Temperature
- Different for each planet
- Found
- 2016–2017
40 light-years, toward Aquarius
TRAPPIST-1 is a very small star about 40 light-years away, toward the constellation Aquarius. It is only a little bigger than Jupiter. In 2016 and 2017, astronomers found seven Earth-sized planets circling it.
View this scene in 3D →Seven planets inside Mercury’s orbit
All seven planets orbit very close to the star. Even the outermost one is only about one-sixth as far out as Mercury is from the Sun. The innermost planet goes around in 1.5 days and the outermost in 19 days. The big yellow dashed circle is Mercury’s orbit, drawn to the same scale.
Why?The star is small and dim, so planets have to huddle close to stay warm. Three of them (e, f and g) are at distances where water could be liquid. The green band on screen shows that range.
Learn moreStanding on one of these planets, you would sometimes see a neighbor planet looking bigger than our Moon. The James Webb Space Telescope found that the two inner planets (b and c) probably have no thick air.
View this scene in 3D →Sources: Wikipedia: TRAPPIST-1
Distances and facts come from published research and NASA, as noted under each planet. The 3D close-ups are artist’s views based on that research, not photographs. Distances to faraway stars can carry some uncertainty.