7 Earth-like planets discovered around single star

Our solar system has 3 planets inside the "goldie locks zone" too.

This find also give credence to a number of scifi books and TV shows with many planets having near-Earth gravity.

And don't be fooled by the images. Nobody can take a photo of these planets from our solar system and definitely NOT from Earth. Those images are meant as possible artist conceptions based on guesses for atmospheric gases, diameters and orbits (which provide mass).

Ahh god I love news like this. One can only imagine what sort of landscape can be found on these planets

this is good news scientifically speaking. but need to be aware of powerful alien races that inhabit these planets, they might not like us snooping around. NASA or the US military really needs to up its intergalactic armory, we may need to use it against hostile aliens if we want to invade their world.

There's an amazing movie called, "Mars Attacks". If you see this you'll understand why we should be very cautious about finding and approaching other life forms. We might be safe since this is a good 39 light years away.

I love that movie. I forgot about it - I think I'll watch it again.

Size and proximity are 2 factors but need way more than this. Right chemicals elements, right chemical evolution before biological evolution. Some other planets probably had the same privilege we have. The priviledge to be alive and complain about trivial stuff on forums.

Mars Attacks isn't really a good movie. It's got an embarrassing portrayal of the president by Jack Nicholson. Ak ak. The collector cards were better than the movie. Wonder if the solar system NASA is talking about has an Environmental Agency.

Hands off - they may fall within the Nine Dash line.

need to be aware of powerful alien races that inhabit these planets, they might not like us snooping around.

Rather than exterminating us they will probably just elect a leader who promises to make Trappist 1 great again by building a forcefield to keep the earthlings out, and the earthlings are going to pay for it. That usually how these things go.

I think if we ever make it to another planet then it's colonize or be colonized.

39 light years is a very long way, work it out, light travels at 300,000 km or 186,000 miles per second. With current rocket technology it would take thousands of years to get there. Unless the aliens have their own warp drive we are unlikely to meet them unless they are already on their way and have been for a very long time.

Rather than exterminating us they will probably just elect a leader who promises to make Trappist 1 great again by building a forcefield to keep the earthlings out, and the earthlings are going to pay for it. That usually how these things go.

No way! earth will never EVER pay for a force field like that! thats my point, we need to make stronger weapons den theys got so we can destroy any attempts at keeping earth out of their region. also, this is assuming that said planet has a democracy suitable for electing a leader with such ideas. democracy isnt a quality on all other planets, we need to assume.

"Researchers announced Wednesday the stunning discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting a small star in our galaxy,"

Great! But then...

"The Trappist-1 system, a mere 39 light years distant,"

Oh well, until Zefram Cochrane or somebody invents warp speed, we can never get there.

"Mars Attacks isn't really a good movie."

What! I gotta go with Stranger on this one, I couldn't stop laughing throughout the movie and was literally rolling on the floor when Tom Jones started singing "It's not unusual..." ha ha ha ha ha ha

So, I did a little math when this was first released a few days ago. If we have a spacecraft that can accelerate at 1g for the entire trip, it will take a little over 7 yrs (ship-time) to get there. This is without warp drive.

Of course, back on Earth, the clock would have gone something like 42 yrs.

With current, existing, human technology, the trip is something like 121,000 yrs. That's with nuclear powered electric plasma drives.

The most likely top speed for humans without reaching too far into fantasy is about 10% of C using huge solar sails. Japan is the current leader in solar sail tech. We'd tack downward towards the Sun/Sol, then turn to take full force of the photons pushing away in the direction desired to achieve the greatest top speed. This drops the time to about 1200 yrs.

A solar sail the size of Tx would be needed for a minimal crew. Origami would be used to back and unfold the sail in space.