Description
TRAPPIST-1e , also designated as 2MASS J23062928-0502285 e , is a rocky, close-to-Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone around the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, located 40.7 light-years (12.5 parsecs; 385 trillion kilometers; 239 trillion miles) away from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. Astronomers used the transit method to find the exoplanet, a method that measures the dimming of a star when a planet crosses in front of it.
The exoplanet was one of seven discovered orbiting the star using observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Three of the seven ( e , f , and g ) are in the habitable zone or the "goldilocks zone". TRAPPIST-1e is similar to Earth's mass, radius, density, gravity, temperature, and stellar flux. It is also confirmed that TRAPPIST-1e lacks a cloud-free hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, meaning it is more likely to have a compact atmosphere like the terrestrial planets in the Solar System.
In November 2018, researchers determined that of the seven exoplanets in the multi-planetary system, TRAPPIST-1e has the best chance of being an Earth-like ocean planet, and the one most worthy of further study regarding habitability. According to the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, TRAPPIST-1e is among the best potentially habitable exoplanets discovered.
