Google celebrated NASA's exoplanet discovery with a special animated doodle
US space agency NASA announced the discovery of a solar system with seven Earth-sized planets. Almost all of the seven planets are rocky and three are likely to have water. Scientists believe the new solar system could be the best place to look for life.
The Google team could hardly contain its excitement and has dedicated its doodle today to NASA's latest discovery. The animated Doodle shows earth looking through a telescope to find the seven planets. The system is around 40 light-years, which is 235 trillion miles, away from Earth, in a constellation called Aquarius.
Watch Google's animated doodle hereYesterday, the US space agency announced that its scientists have discovered the existence of another 'solar system' - Trappist-1.
A press release from NASA said the Spitzer Space Telescope has found that at least three of them are in a "habitable zone". Almost all of the seven planets are rocky and three are likely to have water. "This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life. Answering the question ‘are we alone’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal," NASA administrator Thomas Zurbuchen said in a statement.
Researchers said the proximity of the solar system make it a good target for follow-up studies. "I think that we've made a crucial step towards finding if there is life out there," University of Cambridge astronomer Amaury Triaud told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday.