NASA discovered seven Earth-size planets that could potentially harbor life. This discovery offers the first realistic opportunity to search for signs of life outside of our solar system. These planets are orbiting a dwarf star named Trappist-1, about 40 light-years, or 235 trillion miles away from Earth. With a distance like that, it may be hard to believe, but this is considered close, when we're taking about space.
These seven "exoplanets", or planets that orbit a star outside the solar system, can be studied in greater detail based on the orientation of their orbits.
Astronomers said some of the exoplanets in this new system could be just the right temperature to support oceans of water, based on their distance from the dwarf star Trappist-1.
According to Michael Gillon, a member of the research team observing Trappist-1 at the University of Liege in Belgium, this is the first time so many planets of this kind have been found around the same star.
For more information and good reads on this discovery, head over to https://www.nasa.gov/