NASA's discovery of seven rocky planets orbiting a single, relatively nearby star to Earth is being hailed by astronomers as a leap forward in the search for habitable planets, and even life, outside our solar system.
Among those looking on with excitement: Doug Duncan, director Boulder's Fiske Planetarium. He spoke about the discovery and what it means with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner.
The planets orbit a dwarf star named Trappist-1, which is about 40 light years away -- that's equal to about 235 trillion miles. They were discovered using observations from several telescopes including the Spitzer Space Telescope, which has major instruments built by Ball Aerospace in Boulder. Three of the Trappist-1 planets are within what's called the "habitable zone," which means their surface temperatures could allow liquid water.
The search for "exoplanets," or planets outside our solar system, has yielded nearly 3,500 confirmations since the first one, a gas giant dubbed 51 Pegasi b, was confirmed to be orbiting its star in 1995. Earlier this year, a team including a scientist at the University of Colorado confirmed the existence of water in the atmosphere of 51 Pegasi b.
