TRAPPIST-1

[Jordan Konisky 3]

As we all know, seven earth-like planets have been discovered orbiting the low-mass-star TRAPPIST-1.   TRAPPIST-1 is reported to be located only 12 parsecs (39 light yrs) from us.  Can anyone described how this distance was determined?  Thanks.

[saac 2,487]

Jordan a common method to measure distance to stars is the parallax method. Essentially triangulation where the position of the star is compared over say a 6 month period.  The other method is effectively by comparison to a standard known reference (standard candles). Here the distance to so called Cepheid variables stars is taken as the reference. I don't know for certain but I suspect that one of either method was used in this case. I believe parallax favours nearby stars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax

 

Jim

Edited March 5, 2017 by saac

[Pig 6,107]

I believe the method used is called Parallax

[orion25 2,673]

The parallax method was used. Here is some vital statistics about Trappist-1:

https://www.universeguide.com/star/trappist1

 

Regards,

Reggie

[Jordan Konisky 3]

I thought parallax, but was looking for the actual report.  Thanks, Reggie for that trappist-1 info site which cites the Hipparcos data. 

[101nut 268]

The official web site is www.trappist.one which has a multitude of links to data if you wish to delve deeper.

We were lucky enough to have one of the authors - Dr Amaury Triaud from Cambridge University - speak for us at Norwich Astronomical Society last year about using the moon to help find exo-planets and exo-planet research in general (he wasn't allowed to talk specifically about the Trappist-1 discoveries as they were unpublished at the time but you could tell it was going to be a biggie!)

Dr Triaud is a really good speaker - if you ever get the chance to listen to him I'd heartily recommend it. 

AndyG

Edited March 5, 2017 by 101nut

[glappkaeft 79]

4 hours ago, Jordan Konisky said:

I thought parallax, but was looking for the actual report.  Thanks, Reggie for that trappist-1 info site which cites the Hipparcos data. 

I believe that CTIOPI has the most recent data for TRAPPIST-1, here you go: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/505706/pdf

TRAPPIST-1 is referred to as 2MASS 2306-0502.

Edited March 5, 2017 by glappkaeft