If you're looking for an ultra-long vacation to an ultra-small dwarf star, a new NASA travel poster has just the trip for you: a star trek to TRAPPIST-1e!
NASA unveiled the retro TRAPPIST-1e exoplanet travel poster Wednesday (Feb. 22) to commemorate the discovery of seven Earth-size alien worlds around the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. The image is the latest in a series of awesome NASA space travel posters to promote exoplanet science.
"Planet Hop From TRAPPIST-1e," the NASA poster proclaims, showing what appears to be two children marveling at a view of the system's six other planet in the sky. "Voted Best 'Hab Zone' Vacation Within 12 Parsecs of Earth." TRAPPIST-1e is one of three planets (the others are TRAPPIST-1f and TRAPPIST-1g) in the TRAPPIST-1 system located within the cool dwarf star's habitable zone, that "Goldilocks zone" where liquid water could exist. [How Long Would It Take to Fly to TRAPPIST-1?]
The system is just over 39 light-years from Earth. That's about 235 trillion miles, or as you've read above, about 12 parsecs.
Twelve parsecs! Han Solo's Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars" could easily make the trip. After all, it's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
You can download in high-resolution here — even a print-out poster size! — from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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