TRAPPIST-1e

TRAPPIST-1e is a rocky, close-to-Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone around the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, located 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.

Astronomical data · SIMBAD

Object type: Pl
Distance: 41 light-years
Coordinates: RA 346.6224° · Dec -5.0414°

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via SIMBAD · CDS Strasbourg

Key facts

Planet.name: TRAPPIST-1e
Planet.image: TRAPPIST-1e artist impression 2018.png
Planet.caption: Artist's impression of TRAPPIST-1e from 2018, depicted here as a tidally locked planet with a liquid ocean. The actual appearance of the exoplanet is currently unknown, but based on its density, it is likely not entirely covered in water.
Planet.discoverer: Michaël Gillon et al.
Planet.discovery_site: Spitzer Space Telescope
Planet.discovered: 22 February 2017
Planet.discovery_method: Transit
Planet.apsis: astron
Planet.star: TRAPPIST-1
Planet.surface_grav: g
Planet.single_temperature: Teq: ()
Planet.atmosphere_composition: None or mostly N2, with trace amounts of CH4 and CO2

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Radius: 0.0819
Mass: 0.002
Orbital period: 6.099615
Image: TRAPPIST-1e artist impression 2018.png

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orbital inclination: 89.86
time of discovery or invention: 2016-05-00
semi-major axis of an orbit: 0.02817
orbital eccentricity: 0.085
right ascension: 346.62236835536920
declination: -5.04139769179028
right ascension component of proper motion: 930.879
declination component of proper motion: -479.403
parallax: 80.4512
argument of periapsis: 108.37
Commons category: TRAPPIST-1 e
catalog code: TIC 278892590e

Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~12 min read

Article

14 sections

Contents

Physical characteristics
Mass, radius, density, composition and temperature
Host star
Orbit
Atmosphere
Habitability
2018 studies
2024 studies
2025 studies
Discovery
Gallery
Videos
See also
References

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/"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 that if the planet has an atmosphere it is more likely to have a compact atmosphere like the terrestrial planets in the Solar System.