#QUERIOUS PLANETS HOW TO#

NASA also released one of its signature interplanetary travel bureau postersĪnd NASA isn't alone in creating delightful content for these curious planets.

For now, this science-fiction is pure fantasy.

#QUERIOUS PLANETS HOW TO#

If these worlds are habitable, will we ever inhabit them? They may be relatively close by cosmic standards-just 40 lightyears away-but heck, we haven't even figured out how to get to Mars yet. Scientists have said that it's possible the planets are positioned that way, with a light side and a dark side-which could make for some interesting life forms and some very weird weather patterns-but for now they're not certain.Īnother story-short, but powerful-imagines a future where the new system has become a golden land of opportunity. It hinges on the notion that the planets in the system are tidally locked like our moon always shows the same face to our planet, one side of these worlds always faces their sun. If that's not quite whimsical enough for you, perhaps you'd fancy some planetary fanfiction? NASA links to 'The Terminator', a short story capturing a slice-of-life on one of the TRAPPIST-1 planets. But, like, okay, this is a reasonable guess: For all we know, TRAPPIST-1d could have black sand beaches surrounded by purple oceans full of evil, hyper-intelligent jellyfish. Never mind the fact that all we really know, with reasonable certainty, is that the planet in question is about the same size as Earth, and is rocky-like Earth, Mars, Mercury, and Venus-and orbits around a red dwarf star.

NASA has created a 360-degree video that puts you right smack dab on the surface of one of the newly discovered worlds. First things first: Remember those illustrations that always got sent out with new exoplanet discoveries? The artistic interpretations based on whatever scant data we might have on the planet? Forget 'em.

Querious planets