Since the planets are outside our solar system, they're technically known as as exoplanets.
"This really is a paradigm shift with regards to the planet population and the path towards finding life in the Universe," said Emmanuël Jehin, a co-author of the new study and an astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium. "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," he said.
The group of international astronomers from MIT, NASA, the University California at San Diego, the University of Liège and other institutions made the discovery. Astronomers focused the Belgian TRAPPIST telescope on the star now known as TRAPPIST-1, a Jupiter-sized star in the constellation Aquarius that is one-eighth the size of our sun and significantly cooler.
The new planets were detected by the faint dimming of the star as the planets orbited, blocking some of its light.
Despite being so close to the Earth, the star is too dim and too red to be seen with the naked eye, or even visually with a large amateur telescope.
"This really is a paradigm shift with regards to the planet population and the path towards finding life in the Universe," said Emmanuël Jehin, a co-author of the new study and an astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium. "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," he said.
The group of international astronomers from MIT, NASA, the University California at San Diego, the University of Liège and other institutions made the discovery. Astronomers focused the Belgian TRAPPIST telescope on the star now known as TRAPPIST-1, a Jupiter-sized star in the constellation Aquarius that is one-eighth the size of our sun and significantly cooler.
The new planets were detected by the faint dimming of the star as the planets orbited, blocking some of its light.
Despite being so close to the Earth, the star is too dim and too red to be seen with the naked eye, or even visually with a large amateur telescope.