TRAPPIST - 1 System: Can we live there?

 Trappist-1:  The seven habitable planets

The Trappist-1 is a star that's about 40 light-years from the sun, in the constellation Aquarius, and is an ultra-cool red dwarf. It has a radius slightly larger than the planet Jupiter while having 94 times Jupiter's mass. Orbiting around it is a system of 7 planets, all of which fall into the habitable zone (Goldilocks zone). Meaning, humans can colonize these planets. Trappist-1 was discovered in 2015 and the planets were individually discovered in 2017. 

As detected by the Hubble Space Telescope, the planet closest to Trappist-1 has 1 year equal to 1.5 earth days while the farthest planet has 1 year equal to 18.8 earth days. This is nothing compared to the 365.25 days earth takes to revolve. These planets are so close to each other that if we stand on one of them, others will be visible to us several times closer than the moon. It would be a sight to see! Gravitational interactions between the planets are very strong due to their proximity. 

On 31st August 2017, Hubble Telescope was able to determine the presence of water on almost all the planets and even detected an icy ocean on the 7th planet. After calculating the density, it is said to have a rocky surface. This further multiplies our chances to colonize them. But, it is also detected that all 7 planets could be tidally locked (one side permanently facing the star) making the development of life more challenging. Because of the extreme temperature differences on both the faces of planets, strong winds might occur as the atmospheric difference would be huge. Humans would have to stay on the terminator line. This is the region where day and night meet. Although we don't know the exact atmospheric composition of the planets in the Trappist-1 system, it's said to be devoid of hydrogen. Raising many questions about how humans could survive if they are constantly bombarded with harmful rays is yet to be answered. 

In conclusion, humans first need to build the technology to travel 40 light-years away and examine these exoplanets. As the star is a red dwarf, the Trappist-1 system is older than our solar system (to learn more about dwarf stars and neutron stars, click here). In theory, if we supposedly colonize these planets, we would be able to travel from one planet to another and have vacations.