A UC San Diego astrophysicist contributed to research that supported NASA's discovery of a cluster of seven planets, three of which could potentially support life.
NASA and a Belgian-led research team announced Wednesday that they discovered a cluster of planets less than 40 light-years from Earth. Seven planets were found, and three of them could possibly be habitable for life.
Adam Burgasser is a physics professor at UCSD's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, who was part of the research team of about three dozen scientists that found the planets. The team is filled with collaborators all over the US, Spain and parts of Asia.
He's known about this for over a year but had to keep the discovery confidential. Burgasser told NBC 7 these new findings open up a galaxy of possibilities that life might exist beyond earth.
"These kind of questions about whether there is life beyond earth are questions that I think scientists have been asking since we saw earth as a system. And now we're actually poised to look at specific locations where we could actually answer that question," Burgasser said.
Burgasser and the international team of scientists have been looking at the Trappist-1 star for more than a year. The star is a low-mass, dim red star, not visible to the human eye without a high-tech telescope.
"It's not the first time we've ever found a habitable, earth-sized planet around any star. There are about a dozen of those known, including earth by the way. We've known about that one for a while," Burgasser said.
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"But this is the first time that we've both found these kinds of planets around a very low mass star and more importantly found multiple planets that are potentially in that habitable zone around any star."
With the help of advanced telescopes from Chile, Morocco and one orbiting the sun, they were able to find the planets. At least seven earth-sized planets are orbiting the Trappist-1 star, in the Aquarious constellation.
The team used the transit technique which entails watching the planet pass in front of the star for 20 days, using the NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Burgasser and the team of scientists were able to observe many dips in front of the star as seven planets passed by.
The system is relatively close in terms of outer space -- only 40 light years away. That means it would take about 40 years for light from these planets to be seen on earth.
Scientists will need to study the atmospheres in order to conclusively determine whether these rocky, terrestrial plants could hold some form of life.
