2017 was full of exciting discoveries, technological developments and observational events for space enthusiasts.
Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist and senior scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, joined Salon's Alyona Minkovski to b...
2017 was full of exciting discoveries, technological developments and observational events for space enthusiasts.
Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist and senior scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, joined Salon's Alyona Minkovski to break down the year's biggest space-related news on "Salon Talks."
For Faherty, the most mind-bending discovery was that the TRAPPIST-1 star has seven planets, three of which are in a potentially "habitable" zone. "This is where discovering space is so interesting", she said. "Every time I look at a brown dwarf, every time I look at a low mass star now, I think, oh my God they're all covered in planets. We don't know if it's seven, we don't know if it's 50. We don't know what the limit of planetary formation, planetary systems around a star might be. There could be hundreds," Faherty explained.
Also at top of the list of best moments for astronomy this year are the total solar eclipse that took place in August, the Nobel Prize awarded for the detection of gravitational waves, and a mysterious interstellar object named "Omuamua" that entered our solar system.
To hear all of the big space discoveries you might have missed, watch the full conversation above.