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A group of astronomers has identified a <keyword id="46100" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="planet" source="Orion">planet</keyword> over 13 times the mass of <keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">Earth</keyword> in orbit around an <keyword id="4388925" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ultracool-dwarf-star" source="Orion">ultracool dwarf star</keyword> named <keyword id="19702505" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lhs-3154" source="Orion">LHS 3154</keyword>, which is merely nine times less massive than the <keyword id="24879" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="sun" source="Orion">Sun</keyword>. This discovery marks the most substantial planet ever found closely orbiting an ultracool dwarf star, challenging existing models.<br /><br />To grasp the perplexity of this revelation, it's essential to revisit our understanding of planet formation. Initially, there was an abundance of gas and dust before stars emerged. These particles gradually merged, forming larger structures that eventually gave rise to the massive celestial bodies we observe today. As these structures grew, they began to exert a significant influence on their cosmic surroundings.<br /><br />Current theories propose that planets originate from the remnants of gas and dust left after star formation. However, the planet-forming disk around the petite LHS 3154 is not anticipated to possess sufficient solid mass to generate a planet as massive as LHS 3154b. This raises the fundamental question: from where did it originate?<br /><br />In fact, the dust mass and dust-to-gas ratio in the disk surrounding stars like LHS 3154, during their early stages, would need to be ten times higher than observed to birth a planet of LHS 3154b's magnitude. This implies the existence of other, unknown processes that can lead to the development of massive planets around low-mass stars.<br /><br />The planet, named LHS 3154b, was identified using the <keyword id="19702504" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="habitable-zone-planet-finder" source="Orion">Habitable Zone Planet Finder</keyword> (HPF), an astronomical spectrograph designed to detect planets with potentially liquid water orbiting the coolest stars beyond our solar system.<br /><br />Typically, locating such planets poses a challenge. However, the lower temperatures of ultracool stars allow liquid-carrying planets to orbit much closer than our Sun would allow for Earth, making interactions between the star and planet more accessible for scientists to observe and confirm the presence of these distant worlds.<br /><br />Megan Delamer, a co-author of the study, remarked, "Based on current survey work with the HPF and other instruments, an object like the one we discovered is likely extremely rare, so detecting it has been really exciting. Our current theories of planet formation have trouble accounting for what we're seeing."<br />

Astronomers find planet that seems too humongous to be orbiting its parent star!

<ul><li><keyword id="3167814" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="brown-dwarfs">Brown dwarfs</keyword> are also called ‘almost <keyword id="6370911" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Stars">stars</keyword>’ or ‘failed stars’ because they’re bigger than most planets but not heavy enough to set themselves on fire.</li><li>They’re born spinning and can rotate upwards of 300,000 kilometres per hour.</li><li>However, scientists at the <keyword id="107353" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Aeronautics-and-Space-Administration">National Aeronautics and Space Administration</keyword> (<keyword id="6360409" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>) believe that brown dwarfs are subject to a speed limit — going any faster would mean falling apart.</li></ul>Brown dwarfs, also called ‘almost stars’ or ‘failed stars’, can spin as fast as 300,000 kilometres per hour (kmph) or more. But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) believes there may be a limit to how fast they can go. Going any faster could spell doom for them. <br /><br />  <div type="image" title="brown dwarf gif" msid="81963463" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;This artist&amp;#39;s concept shows a brown dwarf with bands of clouds, thought to resemble those seen at Neptune and the other outer planets&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />There are billions of brown dwarfs across the Milky Way and each of them spins at a different pace. But, three of the most rapidly rotating ultra-cool brown dwarfs observed to date — T7, L3.5 and L8 — all take just over an hour to complete one rotation.<br /><br />According to NASA’s study published in <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2103.01990.pdf">Astronomical Journal</a>, this is more than just a coincidence. Spinning more rapidly could mean that the planets would break apart.<br /><br /><table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Brown dwarf<br /><br /></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Time taken to complete one rotation<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">T7<br /><br /></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">1.08 hours<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">L3.5<br /><br /></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">1.14 hours<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">L8<br /><br /></td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">1.23 hours<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="It’s not an ‘age thing’" comment="subhead" text="It’s not an ‘age thing’"><span data-til="noop">It’s not an ‘age thing’</span></cmsannotation><br />Brown dwarfs are already spinning on the day that they are born. As they cool down and contract, they start to speed up.<br /><br />So, one could assume that the faster a brown dwarf is spinning, the closer it is to death. However, the three brown dwarfs observed in the study aren’t the same age or at the same point in their development cycle. <br /><br />One is a warm brown dwarf, the other is cold, while the third falls somewhere in between. This implies that brown dwarfs are not speeding up as they inch closer to their end but subject to a speed limit, according to NASA. <br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Cosmic breaking mechanisms may be holding Saturn together" comment="subhead" text="Cosmic breaking mechanisms may be holding Saturn together"><span data-til="noop">Cosmic breaking mechanisms may be holding Saturn together</span></cmsannotation><br />Anything that rotates, generates a centripetal force. The faster the object spins, the higher the centripetal force. It’s the reason why rides at the amusement park have seat belts — to keep riders from getting thrown away from their seats. <br /><br />When it comes to stars and planets, spinning too fast can mean getting torn apart. However, before that point comes, the cosmic entity is likely to start bulging around its midsection as it succumbs to the pressure. This is what scientists call oblation. <br /><br />In our own system, Saturn is already showing signs of oblation. Its speed is one rotation every 10.2 hours — similar to how fast Jupiter takes a turn despite being only 0.3 times Jupiter’s mass. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="brown dwarfs" msid="81963479" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but not quite as massive as stars. Generally speaking, they have between 13 and 80 times the mass of Jupiter. A brown dwarf becomes a star if its core pressure gets high enough to start nuclear fusion.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />This doesn’t necessarily mean that Saturn’s ready to fall apart — but NASA isn’t sure why. The scientists have not yet been able to pinpoint the exact cosmic forces that may be acting as natural braking mechanisms, but scientists know that they are there.<br /><br />“It would be pretty spectacular to find a brown dwarf rotating so fast it is tossing its atmosphere out into space,” said Megan Tannock, lead author of the study. “But so far, we haven’t found such a thing. I think that must mean that either something is slowing the brown dwarfs down before they hit that extreme or that they can’t get that fast in the first place.”<br /><br />The full picture is yet to reveal itself. Further research may reveal whether there’s some braking mechanism that stops brown dwarfs from self-destruction. Or, perhaps, there are brown dwarfs spinning even faster in the darkness just waiting to be found. <br /><strong><br />SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/share-prices-of-tcs-hcl-tech-mindtree-and-other-it-stocks-are-on-fire-ahead-of-q4-earnings/articleshow/81961821.cms">The tech stocks binge is hotting up again with the second wave of COVID-19</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/osiris-exoplanet-was-formed-at-least-a-100-times-farther-away-from-its-sun-than-where-it-is-now-and-has-six-chemicals-in-its-atmosphere-to-prove-it/articleshow/81953394.cms">The first-ever exoplanet discovered was born at least a 100 times farther away from its Sun than where it is now — and has six chemicals in its atmosphere to prove it</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/macrotech-developers-ipo-formerly-known-as-lodha-developers-faces-high-debt-and-covid-scare/articleshow/81948568.cms">Macrotech Developers’ IPO has low home loan interest rate playing in its favour — but high debt and COVID-19 pandemic cloud its prospects</a></strong><br />

'Failed stars' may have a cosmic speed limit to how fast they can spin — otherwise they'll break apart

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>TRAPPIST-1, a red dwarf star 39-light-years away from us, has seven Earth-size planets orbiting it.</strong></li><li><strong>It's likely that all of these worlds are rocky and may possibly harbor liquid water.</strong></li><li><strong>Red dwarf stars are the most abundant type of star in the Milky Way galaxy.</strong></li><li><strong>In the future, telescopes might be able to detect light that passes through the planets' atmospheres - and possibly signal the presence or absence of alien life.</strong></li></ul><p>Less than a year ago, astronomers announced an astounding discovery: They'd found <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-find-3-earth-sized-planets-2016-5">three Earth-size planets</a> orbiting a small, dim red star.</p><p>But as it turns out, their first observations missed a whole bunch of worlds.</p><p>The astronomers now think <em>seven</em> rocky planets similar to our own may circle the star, called TRAPPIST-1 - an "ultra-cool" red dwarf located about 39 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Thirty researchers from around the world announced <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature21360">the new discovery</a> Tuesday in the journal Nature.</p><p>The team's surprise didn't end with an increased world count, though.</p><p>Each planet orbits TRAPPIST-1 in the star's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldilocks-exoplanet-habitability-internal-heat-2016-8">Goldilocks-like habitable zone</a> - a region where there's enough starlight to permit the existence of liquid water. Four of the seven worlds may even be candidates for hosting alien life, team members said Tuesday during a press teleconference call.</p><p>"This is really the first time we have seven planets that we can say are in terrestrial zone, and it's really, really surprising," said Michaël Gillon, a study co-author and astronomer at the Université de Liège in Belgium.</p><p>The discovery of the new worlds, each within 10-20% of the size of Earth, may have profound implications for the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-12">search for extraterrestrial life</a> beyond the solar system.</p><h2>An alien, yet possibly common, solar system</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The dwarf star and its system of seven known planets - called TRAPPIST-1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, and 1h - is relatively small compared to our own.</p><p>In fact, one "year" on the innermost planet, 1b, takes about a day and a half on Earth. The outermost planet, 1h (which scientists have caught only a fleeting glimpse of), takes about 20 Earth-days to orbit the star.</p><p>"If we put the TRAPPIST-1 star [in] the place of the sun, we'd have all seven planets inside the orbit of Mercury," Emmanuël Jehin, another co-author at the Université de Liège, said on the call.</p><p>But that isn't a deal-breaker for the possibility of life.</p><p>TRAPPIST-1's surface temperature is about half that of the sun's, making it "ultra-cool" as stars go. However, if a planet orbits closely enough, it can receive the same amount of solar energy as the Earth receives from the sun at 93 million miles away. All of TRAPPIST-1's worlds appear to be "temperate" and not close enough to get roasted.</p><p>The team said it's "very hard to know" if they just got lucky with their unprecedented discovery of seven Earth-size planets around a single star, or if such an abundance of worlds is common, said Amaury Triaud, fellow co-author and astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK.</p><p>Either way, the bounty of worlds may vastly improve the chances that humans aren't alone in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-milky-way-galaxy-looks-like-2016-9">Milky Way galaxy</a>, let alone the universe at large.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>That's because <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/red-dwarf-planets-proxima-b-aliens-2016-8">red dwarf stars</a> comprise "30 to 50%" of our galaxy's <a href="http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/07/22/how-many-stars-in-the-milky-way/">100 to 400 billion stars,</a> Triaud said, which makes them the most abundant and long-lived type of star around. (Sun-like solar systems represent only about 10% of those discovered thus far, the researchers said.)<p>"I think we've made a crucial step toward finding life out there," Triaud told Business Insider during the call.</p><p>"I don't think we've had the right planets to look at," he said. "If life managed to thrive and release gases similar to those here on Earth, then we will know. We have the right targets."</p><p>Another target could also be Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf just 4.24 light-years away - many times closer than TRAPPIST-1. In 2016, astronomers learned this star system may harbor an Earth-like planet <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/proxima-b-potentially-earth-like-planet-around-closest-star-2016-8">called Proxima b</a>.</p><p>NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/proxima-b-habitable-atmosphere-jwst-2016-9">might be able to study</a> the probable world's alien atmosphere for signs of life. A Russian billionaire is also backing an ambitious mission to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/starshot-proxima-centauri-habitable-planet-2016-8">laser-propel a fleet of tiny spacecraft</a> toward Proxima Centauri and its close neighbor Alpha Centauri to directly study and photograph any worlds around the stars.</p><h2>Why there could be life around TRAPPIST-1</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Since astronomers verified the discovery of the <a href="http://phl.upr.edu/library/notes/25yearsofexoplanetdiscoveries">first exoplanet 25 years ago</a>, scientists have gradually come around to the idea that life is probably common in the universe. (Whether or not it's intelligent, angry, friendly, or indifferent, however, is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-aliens-have-not-contacted-humans-2015-9">a different matter</a>.)</p><p>The transit method, where a planet passes in front of a star and dims its light ever-so-slightly, showed humanity that perhaps trillions of planets may exist in our galaxy alone.</p><p>Gillon and his colleagues used the same method to discover the seven new worlds. They found the first three in previous years using a ground-based telescope named TRAPPIST. They detected the four additional worlds featured in the new study by staring down TRAPPIST-1 for 20 consecutive days with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.</p><p>And, as previously mentioned, more-abundant stars that are much cooler than the sun can warm up rocky planets enough to melt water; that is, if they have enough insulating gases in their atmospheres.</p><p>"It's possible their atmospheres are very similar to the Earth, or Venus, or something completely different," Gillon said.</p><p>The study suggests that the diameters and masses of each planet, estimated based on the amount of starlight dimming they cause, match up with that of rocky worlds, and possibly those that harbor <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/water-space-volume-planets-moons-2016-10">water as ice or liquid oceans</a>.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>That's not to say life is guaranteed around TRAPPIST-1.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-risk-map-united-states-2016-9">Dangerous space weather</a>, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections, could endanger any aliens by blasting them with dangerous high-energy particles. And unfortunately, red dwarf stars - more than most other types of stars - are known for such temper tantrums.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The planets also seem to orbit in "resonance," which could mean that they may be tidally locked and always facing the star with the same side, much like Jupiter's largest moons.</p><p>But neither of these necessarily mean doom for any life that may exist there, the researchers said.</p><p>For one, Gillon said, TRAPPIST-1 "is a very quiet star" as far as giant balls of fusing plasma go.</p><p>Gillon also says orbital resonances and tidal locking may actually be an advantage.</p><p>"This could lead to a huge tidal heating in the cores of the planets," he said, by kneading them with gravitational strain.</p><p>Such warmth could melt ice into liquid, belch insulating gases into the planet's atmosphere through volcanism, and generally stir up the ingredients for life.</p><h2>What's next for TRAPPIST-1</h2><p>Gillon said the team's discovery of TRAPPIST-1's seven planets "is just the beginning."</p><p>Direct photographs of the planets may not be possible, the researchers said. But in the near future, the scientists hope to use telescopes like JWST - scheduled to launch in 2018 - to peek at starlight that passes through the atmospheres of the planets.</p><p>The technique could help them measure how much oxygen, ozone, and other gases the worlds might contain.</p><p>"For instance, oxygen can be produced by photolysis of water on a water-rich planet," Gillon said. "It's really the molecules and their relative abundances that enable us to give the plausible or restricted extent of life. We'll see."</p><p>And even if TRAPPIST-1 seems to be a dead or sterile planetary system now, that still doesn't mean it's an unlikely place to seek out aliens in the future.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>"Could any of the planets harbour life? We simply do not know," <a href="https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/11932/">Ignas A.G. Snellen</a>, a researcher at Leiden University who wasn't part of the research team but reviewed the study for Nature, wrote in an accompanying editorial.<p>"But one thing is certain: in a few billion years, when the Sun has run out of fuel and the Solar System has ceased to exist, TRAPPIST-1 will still be only an infant star. It burns hydrogen so slowly that it will live for another 10 trillion years" Snellen wrote, adding that's "more than 700 times longer than the Universe has existed so far, which is arguably enough time for life to evolve."</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56%"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:66%"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-12">Stephen Hawking warned us about contacting aliens, but this astronomer says it's 'too late'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RzeTAyNjE6gtR_2DvSKCIS3S7yEAsIlS" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Astronomers have found 7 Earth-size planets circling a dwarf star - and they might harbor life

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>TRAPPIST-1, a red dwarf star 39-light-years away from us, has seven rocky, Earth-size planets.</strong></li><li><strong>It's possible all of the worlds could harbor liquid water.</strong></li><li><strong>Red dwarf stars are the most abundant in the universe.</strong></li><li><strong>Future studies of the planets may show the presence or absence of alien life in their atmospheres.</strong></li></ul><p>Less than a year ago, astronomers announced an amazing discovery: They'd found <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-find-3-earth-sized-planets-2016-5">three Earth-size planets</a> orbiting a small, dim red star.</p><p>But as it turns out, their first observations missed a whole bunch of worlds.</p><p>Now the astronomers think <em>seven</em> rocky planets that are similar to our own may circle the star, called TRAPPIST-1 - an "ultra-cool" red dwarf located about 39 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Thirty researchers from around the world announced <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature21360">the new discovery</a> Tuesday in the journal Nature.</p><p>The team's surprise didn't end with an increased world count, though.</p><p>Each planet orbits TRAPPIST-1 in the star's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldilocks-exoplanet-habitability-internal-heat-2016-8">Goldilocks-like habitable zone</a> - a region where there's enough starlight to permit the existence of liquid water. Four of the seven worlds may even be candidates for hosting alien life, team members said Tuesday during a teleconference call.</p><p>"This is really the first time we have seven planets that we can say are in terrestrial zone, and it's really, really surprising," said Michaël Gillon, a study co-author and astronomer at the Université de Liège in Belgium.</p><p>The discovery may have profound implications for the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-12">search for extraterrestrial life</a> beyond the solar system.</p><h2>An alien, yet incredibly common, solar system</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The star system's size is relatively tiny compared to our own.</p><p>"If we put the TRAPPIST-1 star [in] the place of the sun, we'd have all seven planets inside the orbit of Mercury," Emmanuël Jehin, another co-author at the Université de Liège, said on the call.</p><p>But that isn't a deal-breaker for the possibility of life.</p><p>TRAPPIST-1 is about half as hot as the sun. However, if a planet sits very close to the red dwarf star, it can receive the same amount of solar energy as the Earth receives from the sun at 93 million miles away.</p><p>It's "very hard to know" if the team just got lucky with their unprecedented discovery of seven Earth-size worlds around a single star, or if such an abundance of planets is common, said Amaury Triaud, fellow co-author and astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK.</p><p>Either way, the discovery may vastly improve the chances that humans aren't alone in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-milky-way-galaxy-looks-like-2016-9">Milky Way galaxy</a>, let alone the universe at large.</p><p>That's because <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/red-dwarf-planets-proxima-b-aliens-2016-8">red dwarf stars</a> comprise "30 to 50%" of our galaxy's <a href="http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/07/22/how-many-stars-in-the-milky-way/">100 to 400 billion stars,</a> Triaud says, which makes them the most abundant type of star around. (Sun-like solar systems represent only about 10% of systems discovered thus far.)</p><p>"I think we've made a crucial step toward finding life out there," Triaud told Business Insider during the call. "I don't think we've had the right planets to look at. [...] If life managed to thrive and release gases similar to those here on Earth, then we will know. We have the right targets."</p><p>Another target could also be Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf just 4.24 light-years away - many times closer than TRAAPIST-1. Astronomers in 2016 learned that star system may harbor an Earth-like planet <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/proxima-b-potentially-earth-like-planet-around-closest-star-2016-8">called Proxima b</a>, whose alien atmosphere NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/proxima-b-habitable-atmosphere-jwst-2016-9">might be able to study</a>.</p><h2>Why there could be life around TRAPPIST-1</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Since astronomers discovered the <a href="http://phl.upr.edu/library/notes/25yearsofexoplanetdiscoveries">first exoplanet 25 years ago</a>, scientists have gradually come around to the idea that life is probably common in the universe. (Whether or not it's intelligent, angry, friendly, or indifferent is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-aliens-have-not-contacted-humans-2015-9">a different matter</a>.)</p><p>The transit method, where a planet passes in front of a star and dims its light ever-so-slightly, showed humanity that perhaps trillions of planets may orbit stars in our galaxy alone.</p><p>Gillon and his colleagues used the same method to detect the seven new worlds. They found the first three using a ground-based telescope, then found the other four (in the new study) by staring down TRAPPIST-1 for 20 consecutive days using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.</p><p>And, as previously mentioned, more-abundant stars that are much cooler than the sun can warm up rocky planets enough to melt water; that is, if they have enough insulating gases in their atmospheres.</p><p>"It's possible their atmospheres are very similar to the Earth, or Venus, or something completely different," Gillon said.</p><p>The study suggests that the diameters and masses of each planet, estimated based on the amount of starlight dimming and how they orbit TRAPPIST-1, match up with that of rocky worlds, and possibly those that harbor <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/water-space-volume-planets-moons-2016-10">water as ice or liquid oceans</a>.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>That's not to say life is guaranteed around TRAPPIST-1.</p><p>Powerful space weather, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections, could endanger any aliens by blasting them with dangerous high-energy particles. And unfortunately, red dwarf stars, more than most other types of stars, are known for such temper tantrums.</p><p>The planets also seem to orbit in "resonance," which could mean that they, like Jupiter's large moons, may be tidally locked and always facing the star with the same side.</p><p>But neither of these necessarily mean doom for any life that may exist there, the researchers said.</p><p>For one, Gillon said, TRAPPIST-1 "is a very quiet star" as far as giant balls of fusing plasma go. Gillon also says orbital resonances and tidal locking may actually be an advantage.</p><p>"This could lead to a huge tidal heating in the cores of the planets," he said, by kneading them with gravitational strain.</p><p>Such warmth could melt ice into liquid, belch insulating gases into the planet's atmosphere through volcanism, and generally stir up the ingredients for life.</p><h2>What's next for TRAPPIST-1</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Gillon said the team's discovery of TRAPPIST-1's seven planets "is just the beginning."</p><p>In the future, the scientists hope to use the infrared-seeing JWST to peek at the atmospheres of the planets and see how much oxygen, ozone, and other gases they may contain.</p><p>"For instance, oxygen can be produced by photolysis of water on a water-rich planet," Gillon said. "It's really the molecules and their relative abundances that enable us to give the plausible or restricted extent of life. We'll see."</p><p>And even if TRAPPIST-1 seems to be a dead planetary system now, that still doesn't mean it's an unlikely place to seek out aliens.</p><p>"Could any of the planets harbour life? We simply do not know," <a href="https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/11932/">Ignas A.G. Snellen</a>, a researcher at Leiden University who wasn't part of the research team but reviewed the study for Nature, wrote in an accompanying editorial.</p><p>"But one thing is certain: in a few billion years, when the Sun has run out of fuel and the Solar System has ceased to exist, TRAPPIST-1 will still be only an infant star. It burns hydrogen so slowly that it will live for another 10 trillion years" Snellen wrote, adding that's "more than 700 times longer than the Universe has existed so far, which is arguably enough time for life to evolve."</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:66%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-12">Stephen Hawking warned us about contacting aliens, but this astronomer says it's 'too late'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RzeTAyNjE6gtR_2DvSKCIS3S7yEAsIlS" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>An international team of astronomers has discovered three Earth-sized exoplanets, all orbiting the same star, just 40 light-years from us, the&#xa0;<span>16-nation intergovernmental research organization <a href="http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1615/">ESO reported on Monday</a></span>.<p>The scientists have deemed all three planets potentially habitable, an exciting turn in the hunt for exoplanets,&#xa0;a&#xa0;term for<span>&#xa0;planets that orbit a star other than our&#xa0;sun. And it&#xa0;</span>could bring us closer to finding extraterrestrial life.</p><h2><strong>The hunt for aliens</strong></h2><p>The host star is an ultra-cool dwarf star - a type of cool, red star. Most of the time, these stars are too small and faint to be detected by optical telescopes, and this star is no exception.</p><p>"Why are we trying to detect Earth-like planets around the smallest and coolest stars in the solar neighborhood? The reason is simple: systems around these tiny stars are the only places where we can detect life on an Earth-sized exoplanet with our current technology," Michaël Gillon, lead author of the paper presenting the discovery, said in an ESO <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2016-05/e-tph042916.php">press release</a>. "So if we want to find life elsewhere in the Universe, this is where we should start to look."</p><p>The astronomers discovered the planets using a telescope in Chile called TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST).</p><p>The telescope is designed to focus on nearby dwarf stars and search for planets orbiting them. Because light from the star is dimming at regular intervals, it suggested that several planets were orbiting the star.</p><p>The star is about an eighth the size of the sun, half the temperature and almost 2,000 times fainter. This is the first time astronomers have ever found any planets orbiting a star this small and dim.</p><p><div><div id="container"></div><div id="player"></div><div id="pod"></div></div></p><h2 class="embed-spacer"><strong>Sweet spots</strong></h2><p class="embed-spacer">The scientists determined that the third planet, located furthest from its star, might be within the star's habitable zone.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Because of their closeness to the star, the other two planets are likely tidally locked, with one side always facing the star and the other always facing away.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Although the sides facing the star would be too hot to host any lifeforms and the sides facing away would be too cold and dark, the planets might contain "sweet spots." If the planets have atmospheres or even possibly oceans, heat from the star might be more evenly distributed, creating regions that just might be suitable for life.</p><p class="embed-spacer">"The kind of planets we've found are very exciting from the perspective of searching for life in the universe beyond Earth," Adam Burgasser, a professor of physics at the University of California&#xa0;San Diego's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, said in a&#xa0;<a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/uoc--tep042816.php">press release</a>.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Scientists will need to further study the planets to determine if they are actually capable of harboring life.</p><p class="embed-spacer">One way they'll do this is by looking at the effect that the atmosphere of the planets has on the light reaching Earth. Because of the star's size and dimness, it won't drown out these planetary signals, allowing scientists to get a better look.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Scientists should eventually be able to study their composition and atmosphere more deeply as they look for signals of life.</p><p>"These planets are so close, and their star so small, we can study their atmosphere and composition, and further down the road, which is within our generation, assess if they are actually inhabited," co-author Julien de Wit, a postdoc in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences said in an MIT <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2016-05/miot-sdp042816.php">press release</a>.</p><p>These findings open the door for future studies of other ultra-cool dwarf stars, which are long-lived and common in the Milky Way. Around three fourths of all stars and 15% of the stars near to the Sun are ultra-cool dwarf stars.</p><p>With the help of several giant telescopes that are under construction, de Wit says, scientists will soon be able to study the atmospheric composition of these planets to explore them for water and traces of biological activity.</p><p>The full results were published Monday, May 2 in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature17448.html">Nature</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exoplanets-signs-life-science-eso-nasa-space-2016-5">Astronomers say these newly-discovered planets are the best places to search for aliens</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="M2M3k4MzE6GHlQLi6L1zcmZtuJ-zfSf0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

3 newly-discovered nearby planets are a game changer in the hunt for alien life

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1615/#1">M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger/European Southern Observatory</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but <em>three</em> new Earth-like planets that may be the most promising places yet to look for signs of alien life.</p><p>What's more, they're not circling a sun-like star.</p><p>Instead they all tightly orbit what's called a brown dwarf star in our galactic backyard, just 40 light-years away.</p><p>"These are the first Earth-sized planets with the potential for habitability," astrophysicist and co-discovered Michael Gillon told Tech Insider, adding that his team was "amazed, completely amazed" when they found the far-out worlds.</p><p>Gillion and his colleagues, who announced their discovery on Monday in the <a href="http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature17448">journal Nature</a>, spotted the planetary triad by using the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in La Silla, Chile.</p><p>When the planets passed between their small sun and Earth, the star's light slightly dimmed - and the telescope recorded the signals.</p><p>"So far, the existence of such 'red worlds' orbiting ultra-cool dwarf stars was purely theoretical, but now we have not just one lonely planet around such a faint red star but a complete system of three planets," study co-author Emmanuel Jehin said <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1615/#1">in a press release</a> by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which runs TRAPPIST.</p><h2>3 strange new worlds</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1615/#1">European Southern Observatory</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The planets orbit a star dubbed TRAPPIST-1 (named after the telescope). It's roughly the size of Jupiter and considerably smaller than our sun.</p><p>The star isn't bright white like the sun. It's called a brown dwarf because it emits a lot of infrared light, which falls slightly outside the range of what humans can see. And the star isn't quite technically a star - rather, it's a <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/brown_dwarf_detectives.html">big hot ball of gas</a> that never got around to fusing hydrogen.</p><p>Standing on one of the planets' surfaces and looking up would be quite dramatic. "If we were there, we would see it as red and quite big in the sky," Gillon said.</p><p>The sun would appear larger because the planets are so much closer to their star than we are to ours, the red sun would also appear much larger in the sky. It takes Earth takes a year to complete its orbit, for example, but the innermost newly discovered planet circles TRAPPIST-1 in just 1.5 Earth days, and the next-closest in 2.4 days.</p><p>Since the dwarf star is several thousand degrees Kelvin cooler than the sun, however, the planets aren't as hot as they would be in our system.</p><h2>Inside the 'Goldilocks Zone'</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1615/#1">M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Researchers believe that at least two of the planets orbit in the habitable or "<a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/02oct_goldilocks/">Goldilocks</a>" zone around their star.</p><p>The habitable zone is the area around a star where an orbiting planet receives neither too much nor too little light and heat, making the planet "just right" for liquid water to exist.</p><p>The inner two planets are almost certainly within the habitable range. The orbital path of the third planet, however, is less well-known, and may sit outside the habitable zone - meaning it could be too cold to host life as we know it. It's also unclear how long it takes this third planet to make a complete orbit.</p><p>All three worlds are roughly the size of Earth and Venus. Based on this size, Gillon and his colleagues believe their surfaces are probably solid and rocky.</p><p>Scientists also think the planets are "tidally locked." This means that, like our moon - but unlike the Earth - they don't spin on their axes. One side of each planet is always facing its sun, and the other is always in darkness.</p><p>On the day sides, the heat from the sun would probably evaporate any water, but the dark sides of the closer two planets, Gillon said, might be cool enough to allow water to stay liquid.</p><h2>A good star system to call home?</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1615/#1">M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>NASA scientist Martin Still is a little more skeptical.</p><p>He thinks that the planets are probably "long shots" for life on Earth, emphasizing that just being in the habitable zone doesn't necessarily mean they have all the necessary ingredients for life - and it certainly doesn't mean they're inhabited.</p><p>"They're just not quite the right temperatures," Still told Tech Insider. "They're just slightly too warm." The inner two planets, he added, get pummeled with roughly two to four times as much radiation as Earth.</p><p>"There are other planets that we know of which are within their habitable zones around stars which are a lot closer to our own nature, with sizes similar to Earth," he said. But these, he thinks, are too far to examine with existing technology.</p><p>The cool dwarf is 40 light years away, in the constellation of Aquarius.</p><h2>Detecting life in alien atmospheres</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1615/#1">International Astronomical Union/European Southern Observatory</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>While current technology can't yet tell us the composition of the planets' atmosphere, Gillon hopes that we might be able to detect the signature elements of life as we know it - oxygen, methane, and water, for example - in their air within the next decade.</p><p>The next step, Gillon said, will be using the next generation of satellites - including NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, which is set to launch in 2018. It will help the Search for Planets Eclipsing Ultra-cool Stars (SPECULOOS), an international collaborative project studying planets that may be around cool stars like this, which astronomers think make up about 15% of all nearby objects in the night sky - <a href="https://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/224-news-2013/2357-the-galaxys-ancient-brown-dwarf-population-revealed">about 70 billion</a> in the Milky Way alone.</p><p>Gillon hopes his team might use light to reveal the planets' atmospheric compositions in as little as two years, then start testing for biogenic signatures within the next decade.</p><p>He said he believes that we could discover signs of life on these bizarre planets, or other planets like them discovered in future.</p><p>"I'm optimistic," he said. "I think life is not something that's a miracle on Earth. I think it's something that's quite common, because all the elements are all over the universe."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exoplanets-signs-life-science-eso-nasa-space-2016-5">3 newly-discovered Earth-sized planets just offered humankind the best place to search for signs of alien life</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="M2M3k4MzE6GHlQLi6L1zcmZtuJ-zfSf0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

We've discovered 3 bizarre planets and one scientist is 'optimistic' they might harbor life

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>ESO / M. Kornmesser</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>On May 2, an international team of astronomers announced that they had discovered three Earth-sized exoplanets, all orbiting the same star (TRAPPIST-1) just 40 light-years from us.</p><p>The scientists determined that all three planets are potentially habitable based on their size and temperature.</p><p>Now, the same team has discovered that the two innermost planets are rocky and have compact atmospheres, making them less like the hostile planet of Jupiter and more like the rocky planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars. This makes the prospect of life lurking in these faraway worlds even stronger. The researchers published their results today in Nature.</p><p>The findings were made just two days after the team announced that it had found the planetary system.</p><h2><strong>A promising place to detect alien life</strong></h2><p>Systems like this are promising places to detect alien life, Michaël Gillon, lead author of the paper presenting the discovery, said in an ESO <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2016-05/e-tph042916.php"> press release </a> .</p><p>The host star is an ultracool dwarf star - a type of cool, red star. Most of the time these stars are too small and faint to be detected by optical telescopes, and this star is no exception.</p><p>"Why are we trying to detect Earth-like planets around the smallest and coolest stars in the solar neighborhood? The reason is simple: systems around these tiny stars are the only places where we can detect life on an Earth-sized exoplanet with our current technology," Gillon said.</p><p>Because of their closeness to the star, the two innermost planets are likely tidally locked, with one side always facing the star and the other always facing away.</p><p>Although the sides facing the star would be too hot to host any lifeforms and the sides facing away would be too cold and dark, the planets might contain "sweet spots." If the planets have atmospheres or even possibly oceans, heat from the star might be more evenly distributed, creating regions that just might be suitable for life.</p><h2><strong>A double transit</strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>ESO/M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>To further investigate the promising planets, the researchers pointed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope at TRAPPIST-1 just in time to catch a double transit, which is when two planets pass in front of the same star at almost the same time.</p><p>"We thought, maybe we could see if people at Hubble would give us time to do this observation, so we wrote the proposal in less than 24 hours, sent it out, and it was reviewed immediately," Julien de Wit, a postdoc in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, said in an MIT press release. "Now for the first time we have spectroscopic observations of a double transit, which allows us to get <a href="http://news.mit.edu/">insight on the atmosphere of both planets at the same time</a>."</p><p>The dips in starlight that occurred when the planets crossed in front of the star indicated that the planets have compact atmospheres, which are more suitable to life.</p><p>"We can say that these planets are rocky. Now the question is, what kind of atmosphere do they have?" de Wit said. "The plausible scenarios include something like Venus, where the atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide, or an Earth-like atmosphere with heavy clouds, or even something like Mars with a depleted atmosphere. The next step is to try to disentangle all these possible scenarios that exist for these terrestrial planets."</p>     <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exoplanets-signs-life-science-eso-nasa-space-2016-5">Astronomers say these newly discovered planets are the best places to search for aliens</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="M2M3k4MzE6GHlQLi6L1zcmZtuJ-zfSf0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

2 of the best places to hunt for alien life just became even more promising

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Pentagon_DCA_08_2010_9854.jpg">Mariordo Camila Ferreira and Mario Duran/Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Pentagon building in 2010.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The Department of <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Defense">Defense</keyword> reportedly funded a program to investigate unidentified flying objects (UFOs), according to The New York Times and Politico.</strong></li><li><strong>One of the program's contractors said he is "absolutely convinced" that aliens frequently visit Earth.</strong></li><li><strong>However, scientists who look for extraterrestrial life say the published videos and other materials don't prove aliens were here.</strong></li><li><strong>Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, gives several basic arguments for his skepticism about extraterrestrial visitation.</strong></li></ul><p><br />On Saturday, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/16/pentagon-ufo-search-harry-reid-216111" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politico</a> independently published stories confirming that the US government had quietly funded a program to study UFOs for years.</p><p>The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program "collected video and audio recordings of reported U.F.O. incidents," including one of an undated encounter with "an aircraft surrounded by some kind of glowing aura traveling at high speed and rotating as it moves," the Times wrote.</p><p>AATIP reportedly started in 2007 to study potential unknown military threats, and was funded by nearly $22 million of Department of Defense "black money".</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Department of Defense</span></p><p class="caption">A screengrab from a New York Times video shows a 2004 encounter near San Diego between two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets and an unknown object. It was released by the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>DoD officials told The Times and Politico that it shut down the program in 2012. But Luis Elizondo, a military intelligence official who ran the research effort, allegedly continued its efforts after that.</p><p>Elizondo reportedly resigned in protest of the secrecy surrounding the program in October, and he now helps run a startup to research UFOs called the <a href="https://dpo.tothestarsacademy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stars Academy of Arts and Science</a>.</p><p>"These aircraft ... are displaying characteristics that are not currently within the US inventory, nor in any foreign inventory that we're aware of," Elizondo <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/942925945916162048" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told CNN</a> on Monday. "My personal belief is that there's very compelling evidence that we may nto be alone. Whatever that means."</p><p>But Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, is not convinced - despite <a href="https://futurism.com/seti-scientist-bets-everyone-a-cup-of-coffee-that-well-find-intelligent-life-in-20-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">making a bet</a> that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-aliens-have-not-contacted-humans-2015-9">we'll detect aliens</a> within 20 years.</p><p>"If you see something in the air that you don't understand, and you're the guy in charge of the Air Force, you want to know what that is. It doesn't have much to do with aliens, necessarily," Shostak told Business Insider of AATIP's purpose. "But despite more than a half-century of this, the really good evidence that we're being visited still has failed to surface."</p><h2>Traveling hundreds of light-years 'to do nothing'?</h2><p>But that isn't the only reason Shostak is skeptical of alien visitation claims.</p><p>For one, the distances in space are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/entire-universe-picture-logarithmic-map-2017-6">mind-bogglingly vast</a>. NASA's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/voyager-probes-mission-history-farthest-movie-2018-08">Voyager 1 spacecraft</a>, for example, is leaving the solar system at a clip of 38,000 miles per hour. If the probe was aimed at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/proxima-b-habitable-atmosphere-jwst-2016-9">Proxima Centauri</a> - the closest star to Earth besides the sun - it'd take nearly 75,000 years to reach that system, since it's roughly 4.24 light-years away from us.</p><p>Shostak said that alien civilizations would know about our existence if they're within about 35 light-years of Earth, since we haven't been sending signals into space for very long.</p><p>"The only way they could know that is to pick up, for example, signals from our transmitters - television, radio, radar, all that stuff. But those signals have been going out only since the second World War," Shostak said. "So if they're more than 35 light-years away, there hasn't been enough time for our signals to get to them, and for them to decide, 'Well this is worth the money to go down there and fly around.' Because they can't go faster than the speed of light, and they probably can't <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/extraterrestrial-contact-small-robot-ufos-starshot-2016-4">go the speed of light</a>."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1615a/">ESO/M. Kornmesser</a></span></p><p class="caption">This artist's impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three potentially habitable planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, an ultra-cool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Within a generous 50 light-years, there are only about <a href="http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/50lys.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1,400 star systems</a>.</p><p>"That sounds like a big number, but it's a very small number if you're looking for intelligent beings," Shostak said. "Unless they're the next star system over, which is statistically rather unlikely."</p><p>Assuming that aliens regularly visit Earth defies logic in other ways, too. In nearly all credible reports of UFO sightings, there's no interaction with the witness (aside from claims of alien abductions, which evidence suggests are hallucinations <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363461505050715" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caused by episodes of sleep paralysis</a>).</p><p>"They're the best house guests ever. Because if they're here, they're not doing anything, except for occasionally puzzling pilots. ... They don't help us. They don't hurt us. They don't do anything, just sail around." Shostak said. "It is a little odd that aliens would come hundreds and hundreds of light-years to do nothing."</p><p>Shostak compared this to Europeans discovering America, but not troubling any Native Americans: "They don't try and take any of their land, they don't bring any disease, they don't do anything; they just sort of walk around at the fringes of their settlements, leading to puzzling sightings, but that's it."</p><p>On top of this, Shostak thinks the reasons to visit Earth aren't very convincing.</p><p>"I always ask, 'Why are they here now?' They weren't visiting the founding fathers in the late 1700s, they're visiting us," he said. "The Romans weren't troubled by the aliens visiting. It doesn't make very much sense why they're here now."</p><h2>Rooting out the nature of UFOs</h2><p>Shostak rejects the notion that the <keyword id="6355005" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="News">news</keyword> about AATIP and the Pentagon's footage constitute any proof of aliens.</p><p>About 90% of UFO sightings have explanations, he said, and that still doesn't mean the other 10% are aliens.</p><p>"It just means they're unexplained," he said. "It isn't that one shouldn't look into these - of course, if there really is something here, it'd be extraordinarily interesting to find out. But the fact that there are cases that are hard to explain and that sound rather convincing would be true no matter what the premise."</p><p>Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at MIT who hunts for signs of habitable planets, echoed this idea in the Times' story, telling the newspaper "what people sometimes don't get about <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> is that we often have phenomena that remain unexplained."</p><p>Another area of skepticism for Shostak is that AATIP contracted out much of its work to Bigelow Aerospace in Nevada. The real-estate billionaire Robert Bigelow runs that startup and is friend of former Nevada senator Harry Reid, who started AATIP - in part, according to the Times, due to persuasion from Bigelow. Shostak said he's met Bigelow, and describes him as a "very likable guy" who is a passionate <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bigelow-aerospace-founder-says-commercial-world-will-lead-in-space/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believer in alien visitations</a>, but "not a scientist." </p><p>"If you were investigating some phenomenon that you're not sure whether it's for real or not, but it would be extraordinarily important if were real ... you would want somebody sort of impartial, I would think," Shostak said. "Giving this case to somebody who already knows what the answer is is maybe not terribly objective."<span style="background-color: #ffff00;"></span></p><p>And then there are the sightings themselves, which likely have far simpler explanations than alien visitations. For example, sightings tend to spike in the summer for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ufo-sightings-peak-in-the-summer-2016-2">a variety of reasons</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Skye Gould/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Issues with camera hardware, unfamiliar optical effects, atmospheric phenomena, bright stars and planets, and the presence of unmanned aerial vehicles are all common explanations.</p><p>Though AATIP's unmasking has vindicated many claims by the UFO community that the government is covering up its research, it "may be a situation where they should have been careful what they wished for," Shostak said. "The government said, 'Well, yeah - we did have a program, and we did cover it up, but we didn't find anything.'"</p><p>Indeed, an anonymous senior intelligence official <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/16/pentagon-ufo-search-harry-reid-216111">told Politico</a> that AATIP began mostly to root out the existence of unknown Chinese and Russian military technologies. But after a couple of years, "the consensus was we really couldn't find anything of substance," the official said. "They produced reams of paperwork. After all of that there was really nothing there that we could find."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacecraft-cemetery-pacific-ocean-dead-satellites-2017-10">There's a place at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where hundreds of giant spacecraft go to die</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

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