In late February, NASA scientists opened up about discovering a new solar system to the public. The system, consisting of seven, earth-shaped planets, revolves around the TRAPPIST-1 star, which is about 39 light-years away from Earth, roughly 235 million miles.

The planets are close together, as they often appear as “shimmering crescents” across each other’s skies. Since these planets are relatively close to our solar system, it was believed that the three planets of this system were able to carry extra terrestrial life, as they were found in the “habitable zone.”

However, with the use of a three dimensional climate modelling, performed by Eric Wolf from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, found that only one of the planets from the solar system has potential to carry life. Wolf also concluded that most of the planets were once covered entirely by water, and now have atmospheres consisting of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor.