TRAPPIST-1e
Earth-size exoplanet orbiting TRAPPIST-1 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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TRAPPIST-1e, also designated as 2MASS J23062928-0502285 e, is a rocky, close-to-Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone around the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, located 40.7 light-years (12.5 parsecs; 385 trillion kilometers; 239 trillion miles) away from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. Astronomers used the transit method to find the exoplanet, a method that measures the dimming of a star when a planet crosses in front of it.
Discovery[1] | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Michaël Gillon et al. |
Discovery site | Spitzer Space Telescope |
Discovery date | 22 February 2017 |
Transit | |
Orbital characteristics[2] | |
0.02925±0.00025 AU | |
Eccentricity | 0.00510±0.00058[3] |
6.101013±0.000035 d | |
Inclination | 89.793°±0.048° |
108.37°±8.47°[3] | |
Star | TRAPPIST-1[4] |
Physical characteristics[2] | |
Mean radius | 0.920+0.013 −0.012 R🜨 |
Mass | 0.692±0.022 M🜨 |
Mean density | 4.885+0.168 −0.182 g/cm3 |
0.817±0.024 g 8.01±0.24 m/s2 | |
Temperature | Teq: 249.7±2.4 K (−23.5 °C; −10.2 °F)[5] |
The exoplanet was one of seven discovered orbiting the star using observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope.[1][6] Three of the seven (e, f, and g) are in the habitable zone or the "goldilocks zone".[7][8] TRAPPIST-1e is similar to Earth's mass, radius, density, gravity, temperature, and stellar flux.[3][9] It is also confirmed that TRAPPIST-1e lacks a cloud-free hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, meaning it is more likely to have a compact atmosphere like the terrestrial planets in the Solar System.[10]
In November 2018, researchers determined that of the seven exoplanets in the multi-planetary system, TRAPPIST-1e has the best chance of being an Earth-like ocean planet, and the one most worthy of further study regarding habitability.[11] According to the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, TRAPPIST-1e is among the best potentially habitable exoplanets discovered.[12]