Trappist-1
03 Oct 2017Robert Phillips
A sense of nostalgia prompted me to visit Trappist-1. It is a Class M star not much larger than Jupiter, 39.5LY from Sol.It is notable for being the closest system discovered by astronomers to contain potentially habitable planets. In February 2017, astronomers announced that the planetary system of this star is composed of seven temperate terrestrial planets, of which five (1,2, 4, 5, and 6) are similar in size to Earth, and two (3 and 7) are intermediate in size between Mars and Earth.
Three of the planets (4, 5, and 6) orbit within the habitable zone, and were therefore candidates for terraforming if they were not already habitable.
I went to the system to see it firsthand.
A review of the system now shows the first planet is a landable high metal content world with a landable rocky moon in orbit:
The 4th planet turns out to be an Earth-like world with 2 landable moons in orbit. I collected some materials from the moon, and watched the sun set behind Trappist-1 4:
The system is otherwise unremarkable, so I left shortly afterwards.