Hubble Makes First Measurements of Earth-Sized Exoplanet Atmospheres
Released on July 20, 2016
On May 4th, 2016, the Hubble Space Telescope made the first spectroscopic measurements of two of the three known Earth-sized exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system just 40 light-years away. Now the results are in: a thick, puffy, hydrogen-helium atmosphere is likely ruled out from the possible range of atmospheres for these two planets.