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NASA's just released travel posters for the new solar system and you'll want them on your wall

The closest we'll get to the new planets for now

NASA's just released travel posters for the new solar system and you'll want them on your wall
23 February 2017

What’s cooler than the fact NASA have just discovered an entire new solar system similar to ours that could potentially host life?

These posters of it, that’s what.

If you hadn’t heard, NASA have just discovered a solar system 39 light-years away with seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star named TRAPPIST-1.

Temperatures on the planets are such that water, and therefore life, could potentially be hosted on them, and the discovery’s got a lot of people excited.

NASA have released an entire website about their new discovery, on which they’ll be posting news and updates, and have dedicated a section to this incredible artwork they’ve commissioned by Amanda J. Smith.

NASA have released retro-style travel posters to mark the discovery of the new solar system
One of artist Amanda Smith's interpretations of the new solar system
Get this on your bedroom wall

The posters are properly stunning – the sort of thing you’d want up on your bedroom wall.

And a they’re full of information too – many of them show us comparisons with Earth and other planets in our solar system in terms of size and how they orbit their sun.

TRAPPIST-1’s solar system is much smaller than ours, scientists reckon the closest planet’s year (the time it takes to orbit the star) is the equivalent of about one and a half days, and it’s still just 13 days for the one sixth-furthest away.

Comparing the sizes of the solar systems
The size of each of TRAPPIST-1's planets compared with Earth
Comparing the amount of energy the planets receive from their suns
Comparing the orbits of the two solar sytems
Comparing the architecture of the two systems
Comparing the area covered by the planets
Comparing the sizes and orbital periods of the planets

Because the solar system is so much more compact than ours, NASA scientists say that it would be possible to stand on the surface of one of the planets and have others appear in the sky even closer than the moon looks to us, which is fucking cool.

It only takes about 20,000 years to get there from Earth – get us on the next flight out of here.