Among all the extrasolar systems astronomers have discovered to date, the TRAPPIST-1 system is unquestionably one of the most intriguing.
Orbiting the host star are at least seven terrestrial Earth-like exoplanets, with at least four of those residing within the star’s habitable zone. More importantly, one of those exoplanets is believed to have similar mass and chemical properties to that of Earth.
To date, the TRAPPIST-1 system looks like the most promising system for locating alien life outside of our solar system, but we still know very little about it because of how far away it is.
While space telescopes like Hubble, Kepler, and Spitzer have already revealed tons about the TRAPPIST-1 system, some of these observatories are nearing their end of life and aren’t powerful enough for astronomers to validate their theories.
Fortunately, NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could provide some insight into the habitability of the exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, so we’ll have to cross our fingers and hope it stops getting delayed.