Ian Sample “Thrilling discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby star” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/feb/22/thrilling-discovery-of-seven-earth-sized-planets-discovered-orbiting-trappist-1-star
地球から39光年離れたTrappist-1という矮星の周りを地球ほどの大きさの７つの惑星が回っていることが分かった。白耳義のリエージュ大学のMichaël Gillon氏*1らの研究*2。太陽系外の惑星が既に観察の対象となっているというのが驚きなのだが*3、上の記事も含めて世間の関心は地球外生命体の存在可能性の方に行っているようだ。
See also
Stuart Clark “Discovery of new planets is a lottery win for astronomers looking for alien life” https://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2017/feb/22/discovery-seven-planets-trappist-1-lottery-win-for-astronomers-looking-for-life-beyond-earth
Ian Sample “Kepler 438b: Most Earth-like planet ever discovered could be home for alien life” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/06/earth-like-planet-alien-life-kepler-438b
*1:See eg. http://www.astro.ulg.ac.be/~gillon/MG_Main_Fr/Home.html
*2: Michaël Gillon, Amaury H. M. J. Triaud, Brice-Olivier Demory, Emmanuël Jehin, Eric Agol, Katherine M. Deck, Susan M. Lederer, Julien de Wit, Artem Burdanov, James G. Ingalls, Emeline Bolmont, Jeremy Leconte, Sean N. Raymond, Franck Selsis, Martin Turbet, Khalid Barkaoui, Adam Burgasser, Matthew R. Burleigh, Sean J. Carey, Aleksander Chaushev, Chris M. Copperwheat, Laetitia Delrez, Catarina S. Fernandes, Daniel L. Holdsworth, Enrico J. Kotze et al. “Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1” http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v542/n7642/abs/nature21360.html?lang=en
*3:See Ian Sample “Could these newly-discovered planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf host life?” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/may/02/could-these-newly-discovered-planets-orbiting-an-ultracool-dwarf-host-life
