In February 2017, NASA first found a star system named TRAPPIST-1 with seven Earth-sized planets. Since the beginning of discovery Astronomers are gathering more information about. Now they have calculated the age of the star its exoplanets are between 5.4 and 9.8 billion years old, while the solar system is just 4.5 billion years old.
TRAPPIST-1 is the first-star system in space history where astronomers found habitable zones in three of the seven planets. However, scientists haven’t found any such pieces of evidence of habitability. NASA has reported that TRAPPIST-1 is basically an ultracool dwarf residing 40 light-years away from the solar system.
Lead researcher and the astronomer at the University of California Adam Burgasser said,“Our results really help constrain the evolution of the TRAPPIST-1 system because the system has to have persisted for billions of years”. At the beginning of discovery, it was a myth that TRAPPIST-1 may have unstable planetary orbits as the exoplanets are bunched close to their star. But, the latest findings proved that the planetary system is relatively stable otherwise it would have collapsed in just few billion years.
According to SpaceDaily, the temperature is very consistent throughout the time in TRAPPIST-1. Scientists are assuming the star system is so stable that it would last at least for 900 times the current age of the universe. Burgasser also explained that if there is any sign of alien life humans will take plenty of time to find as the distance is 40 light years away from the solar system.
There is no such powerful telescope has been invented yet to peep into the atmosphere of those seven planets of TRAPPIST-1. So it is a big challenge for the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb telescope to learn the weather pattern because all the things those telescopes are capturing are already 40 years old.
