EXOPLANETS

NASA: 7 Earth-Sized Planets Found Orbiting Nearby Star

Increasing hope in the hunt for alien life beyond the solar system.

NASA announced on Wednesday that seven Earth-sized planets have been spotted around a small star in the Aquarius constellation. Michaël Gillon, an astrophysicist at the University of Liège in Belgium, said the star is "so small and cold that the seven planets are temperate, which means that they could have some liquid water and maybe life, by extension, on the surface." The discovery marks the first time that so many planets close to Earth's size have been found in orbit around the same star, called Trappist-1. Scientists have said the news brings new hope that the Milky Way may resemble our own home and even could spur on the hunt for alien life.