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Google celebrates NASA's Trappist-1 discovery with new Doodle

By Wade Sheridan
Google is celebrating NASA's recent discovery of seven earth-sized planets with a new Doodle. Photo courtesy of Google
Google is celebrating NASA's recent discovery of seven earth-sized planets with a new Doodle. Photo courtesy of Google

Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Google has wasted no time in commemorating NASA's recent discovery of seven earth-size planets with a new Doodle Thursday.

Google's homepage features an animated short with a cartoon version of the earth alongside the moon using a telescope to view the seven planets that are orbiting a single dwarf star. The seven planets are then seen crowding up the telescope's viewfinder to say hi, much to the delight of the earth and moon.

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"What exactly does this new solar system TRAPPIST-1 mean for our universe? Well, three of these newly discovered planets land smack-dab in the middle of what scientists call the habitable zone, or the distance from the star it orbits 'where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.' Though scientists have some serious studying to do before we can definitively say whether any of the new TRAPPIST-1 planets are habitable, the potential is very promising," Google writes of the discovery that was unveiled Wednesday.

"Unlike our solar system, the planets in TRAPPIST-1 are very close together. If we're able to visit one of the TRAPPIST-1 planets one day, we could be able to watch each neighboring planet pass by on its orbital journey!" they continue.

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NASA says the planets reside 235 trillion miles away.

"Finding a second earth is not a matter of if but when," associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters Thomas Zurbuchen said of the discovery in a statement Wednesday.

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