The planetary system TRAPPIST-1 now clearly cannot complain about the lack of attention. Astronomers from all over the world are looking in its direction and trying to find out more about it. At the moment, we know that there are 7 planets in the system. The three planets are in the habitable zone of the star, which in theory could mean that the planets can have water and even life. We also know that the planets of the system wrap around an ultracold dwarf, and are located very close to it. This can be both good and bad news, depending on which side you look at. And now scientists have found out some more facts about the farthest planet in the system.
The results of a new study, published May 22 in the journal Nature Astronomy, reveal some details about the orbit of the planet TRAPPIST-1h. Using data collected by the Kepler space telescope, the research team was able to verify the predictability of the rotational speed of the 6 planets in this system. The gravitational forces of each of these planets keep the system stable.
“Let's take the last planet of this system. When it makes 2 orbital turns, the planet in front of it makes 3 turns. The one going before the penultimate one makes 4 revolutions during the same time and, according to the same scheme, the remaining planets make 6, 9, 15 and 24 revolutions,”says Dan Tamayo, an astronomer at the University of Toronto at Scarborough.
“This is called a 'resonance chain'. And, perhaps, this is the longest chain of resonances that we have come across in planetary systems."
Using this information, scientists were able to figure out the orbital period of the planet TRAPPIST-1h. The planet makes a complete revolution around the star in 19 Earth days. TRAPPIST-1h is located about 9.6 million kilometers from its star. Therefore, scientists say, most likely, it goes outside the habitable zone. Thus, it can be assumed that she is not able to maintain the existence of life. This is also indicated by its temperature indicators. According to the NASA aerospace agency, the amount of energy that the planet receives from its star is similar to that received by the dwarf planet Ceres, located in the asteroid belt of the solar system.
“We found that the radius of the planet TRAPPIST-1 h is about 0.725 R, and the steady-state temperature on its surface is about 173 K (-100 degrees Celsius). She is the coldest in this system. We also measured the rotation period of the star. It is 3.3 days. Several low-power flares were noted on its surface. In general, the star behaves rather calmly for a class M dwarf in the middle of its life cycle.
ICOLAI HIZHNYAK