This Week at NASA: TRAPPIST-1 Earth Size Exoplanets, ISS Cargo Deliveries and More

NASA held a news conference Feb. 22 at the agency’s headquarters to discuss the finding by the agency’s Spitzer Space Telescope of seven Earth-sized planets around a tiny, relatively nearby, ultra-cool dwarf star.
Three of the planets in this system, known as TRAPPIST-1, are in the habitable zone – the region around the star in which liquid water is most likely to thrive on a rocky planet. This is the first time so many planets have been found in a single star’s habitable zone outside our solar system, and is the best target yet for studying the atmospheres of potentially habitable, Earth-sized worlds. Also, Kennedy’s Pad 39A, Back in Business, Russian Cargo Ship Arrives at Space Station, RS-25 Engine Tests Resume at Stennis, Structural Testing Begins on SLS Hardware, and 55th Anniversary of Friendship 7 Flight.