What other Solar Systems are in the Milky Way Galaxy

Captain Trustee: And now it’s time for Who Smarted.

Unknow speaker: Now boarding roses. 42 to 34.

Captain Trustee: Hey, Smarty Pants, have you ever traveled far away, perhaps to another country or continent? Maybe you flew to Rome, Italy to see the Colosseum and have some authentic Italian food, or you went to China to see pandas and the Great Wall? Oh, perhaps you visited the beaches, Australian saw kangaroos, or maybe you visited baseball stadiums around America. The important thing to remember is no matter where you go, it’s always an adventure to take in someplace different than your own home, and it just so happens that is exactly what I am doing today, and you are all invited to join me.

Unknow speaker: Please have your ticket ready.

First Lieutenant: Oh, hi, Captain Trustee, welcome back on board.

Captain Trustee: Thanks. First Lieutenant. Hey, now. Okay, Smarty Pants. Confession time today. We are not going to a new country and I’m not boarding an ordinary plane. Nope. Today we are embarking on a fantastic voyage through space on the USS Smarty pants, a state-of-the-art intergalactic spaceship that only exists in Sci-Fi movies, and TV shows and podcasts like Who Smarted. Together, we will voyage outside the comfort of our own solar system and travel to a faraway star and meet distant planets. Get ready to boldly go where no narrator has ever.

First Lieutenant: Excuse me Captain Trustee. Do you think there would be any pizza parlors there?

Captain Trustee: Pizza parlors?

First Lieutenant: Yes.

Captain Trustee: In another solar system.

First Lieutenant: I just love pizza. I could really go for a slice or two.

Captain Trustee: No, I am not expecting to find pizza in another solar system.

First Lieutenant: I see. So, if they don’t have delicious pizza, what do they have?

Captain Trustee: Huh? Good question. First, Lieutenant Smarty Pants, what can you expect to find in other solar systems? How many are out there? And just how strange might they be? It’s time for another whiff of science and history on

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Captain Trustee: Okay. Smarty Pants. We are now blasting toward another solar system that is in our very own Milky Way galaxy. Our destination is a system around a red dwarf star called Trappist One. It’s the most common type of star in the galaxy. One that’s cooler and smaller than our own sun and not as bright.

First Lieutenant: It’s red and round. Ooh. Kind of like pepperoni, the number one topping for

Captain Trustee: Pizza. Still. Look, you know how much I also love pizza, but I seriously doubt we will find any there, Lieutenant Oge. Now, how long until we reach the trapes to one solar system?

First Lieutenant: Less than five minutes. We’re approaching the constellation Aquarius.

Captain Trustee: Excellent. Now Smarty Pants, most spade ships can’t get to Trappist one this quickly. It’s about 40 light years from Earth, which means it would take 40 years to reach here going at the speed of light. Unfortunately, humans have not come close to traveling that fast. The Apollo 10 flight to the moon was the fastest humans have ever traveled, and it was nearly 40,000 kilometers per hour. But light moves at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. A spaceship going at Apollo 10 speed would take about a million years to reach Trappist One. It’s really, really, really far. Are we there yet? But even if we were to visit the closest solar system to ours at Proximus Cent Tori, it would still take over 100,000 years to get there.

Trappists 1B: Whoa.

First Lieutenant: So, Captain, I must ask if there’s no pizza to be found, why are we going to Trappist one?

Captain Trustee: Well, the Trappist one solar system is getting a ton of attention from Earth. Since the discovery of planets there in 2016, it’s been viewed by multiple ground and space telescopes such as Hubble, Kepler, Spitzer, and the James Webb. In fact, Trappist one is the most studied solar system besides our own of course.

First Lieutenant: I see, and why is that?

Captain Trustee: Oh, you’ll see.

First Lieutenant: We are arriving there now.

Captain Trustee: Great. Hello, Trappist one. This is the USS Smarty Pants from the planet

Trappists 1B: Blue fla flap sno co black, black burp. Herbie snack boop Z Pop.

Captain Trustee: What’s going on? Number one,

First Lieutenant: It’s our universal translator, sir, it’s set to the wrong frequency. Just like when you visit a new country, you might need a translator app to help you understand the language. We have a wonderful universal translator. I just need to adjust it for the solar system. Give me one sec.

Trappists 1B: Spaghetti fingers. Cake fart. Howdy

First Lieutenant: There, that should do it.

Trappists 1B: I take it. You folks aren’t from around here. Welcome to trap one. My name’s Trappists 1B. So where are y’all from?

Captain Trustee: Well, we’re from earth

Trappists 1B: I knew it. We here have been observing y’all for quite some time here. Let me introduce you round. Okay, we’ll start with a big guy, the star of our solar system. Literally Trappists one.

Trappists 1: Hello

Captain Trustee: Hi.

Trappists 1B: Then moving away from the star or seven planets. Starting with me Trappists 1B. Then an alphabetical order, moving away from our star is Trappists 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 1G. In our asset planet 1H.

Captain Trustee: Wow. Nice to meet everyone.

Trappists 1: Hi. Hey. Howdy. Yo, nice to see you. What’s up?

Trappists 1B: You’ll notice where a tight knit group. Why we’re all closer to our sun then Mercury is to yours. In fact, if you stood on one of our surfaces, you’d see all the others clearly in the sky larger than your own moon. You might also notice something familiar about all of us.

Captain Trustee: Hmm. Smarty Pants. Can you guess what’s familiar about these planets? Is it;
(a) They’re gas giants like Jupiter,
(b), they’re all very close in size to Earth. Or
(c), they look like asteroids.

If you said B, you’re right. Tropicalist one is the first known solar system to have seven Earth, Earth-sized planets. Scientists believe all seven are rocky planets and at least three of them are in the habitable zone, meaning they might have water. Now, Smarty Pants, why would scientists be looking for planets with water? Is it;
(a), they’re thirsty.
(b), they’re planning to send surfers into space. Or
(c), where there’s water, there could be life.

Yep. You got it, the answer is C. That’s why the Trappist 1 system is getting so much attention. So, tell me, Trappist 1B, is there life on any of these earth-sized planets?

Trappists 1B: Gosh, I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise. Y’all listening will have to come out and see for yourself.

Captain Trustee: Yeah, as I mentioned to the smarty pants earlier, unless we suddenly find a super-fast way to travel, nobody on earth is visiting Trappist 1 anytime soon. So maybe you can just tell us.
Trappists 1B: Fine, but I’ll only say it once. You asked if there’s any life in the Trappist 1 solar system, the answer is bla flap, flap. Flo floop de flop

First Lieutenant: Captain, the universal translator seems to be on the frits. It won’t melt to the correct channel.

Trappists 1B: bla flap, flap. Zebra.

Captain Trustee: Oh boy. Do you think you could fix it?

First Lieutenant: I’m giving her all she’s got captain, but I’m going to need more time

Trappists 1B: Snack. B zebra. Me cake, me cake, me cake fart.

Captain Trustee: Oh my. Well, keep working on it. We need to find out if there’s life in Trappist 1, hopefully we’ll get it fixed during this quick break, and a word from our sponsors.

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Captain Trustee: Now back to Who Smarted. Hey Smarty Pants. Welcome back to the USS Smarty Pants, which we used to visit the Trappist 1 solar system, some 40 light years away from Earth. We were mid-conversation with the planet Trappist 1B when our universal translator went on the fritz. First Lieutenant N hey now is working feverishly to try and fix it. It sounds like she might be getting close.

Unknow speaker: Whopper, whopper, whopper, big Mac

Captain Trustee: Or not.

First Lieutenant: Just another minute or so. While we wait, let’s talk more about space. Smart Pants do you know what a planet outside our own solar system is called? Is it an
(a) Exoplanet
(b), a nano planet, or
(c), a dwarf planet?

If you said (a) exoplanet, nice job. And can you guess when the first exoplanet was found? Was it;
(a) In the 1990s,
(b) In the 1780s or
(c) In ancient times?

The answer again is (A), that means even though science fiction like Marvel comics, Star Wars and Star Trek have long imagined other worlds outside our solar system. The truth is we didn’t know for sure that they actually existed until only about 30 years ago.

Unknow speaker: Whoa.

Captain Trustee: Now, can you guess how many exoplanets have been found since then? Your choices are more than 100, more than 500 or more than 5,000. Well, Smarty Pants astronomers have found more than 5,500 exoplanets in just 30 years. So, it’s been a very exciting time for space exploration. In fact, astronomers now say there are more planets than stars in our galaxy, which is astounding considering there are about 200 billion stars in the Milky Way.

First Lieutenant: But captain, if there are that many exoplanets, why did it take so long to find them?

Captain Trustee: Smarty Pants, and he guesses, why? is it;
(a) Stars are too bright to easily see the planets around them?
(b) Planets are too small compared to their stars or
(c), The planets are just too far away from earth.

Well, the answer is all three.

First Lieutenant: Interesting. So, Captain, if these planets are so hard to discover, how do astronomers find them? And equally important, can they locate deep space pizza the same way?

Captain Trustee: How’s the translator coming?

First Lieutenant: Almost there, captain.

Captain Trustee: Good. Well, I am not sure about pizza, but I do know that astronomers find exoplanets using several indirect methods. For example, astronomers will look for a star whose light briefly dims because that could indicate a planet is crossing in front of it, or perhaps a planet’s gravitational pole will cause a star to visibly wobble. Sometimes astronomers will block out the glare of a star to better see objects around it, including any possible exoplanets.

Trappists 1B: You got that right partner and y’all earth folks have used more than one of those methods to learn about me and my friends here.

Captain Trustee: That’s right. 1B, and I’m glad we can understand you again.

Trappists 1B: Same have you all heard about them wild and crazy exoplanets and other solar systems.

First Lieutenant: Like what?

Trappists 1B: Well, for example, there’s Kepler 16B, which orbits not one but two stars like tattoo in your Star Wars movies. But it’s actually in our galaxy, not one far away. Some solar systems have Jupiter sized planets super close to their suns. One planet called Wasp 12B is so close, its star is eating it up. The star’s gravity is not only ripping off the planet’s atmosphere, it’s also stretching it to look like an egg.

First Lieutenant: That is wild and crazy.

Trappists 1B: Meanwhile, some planets don’t have stars at all. They’re called rogue planets. Some gravity forest must have flung them out of their solar systems, and then there are exoplanets with wild stuff going on. One known as 55 Can Cree E, is covered in an ocean of lava and has sparkling skies. While another planet called Tres 2B has air as hot as lava and is super dark. In fact, it’s known as the darkest exoplanet in the universe. You wouldn’t be able to see nothing on it. Your astronomers have also found a planet that rains glass and another that rains iron.

Captain Trustee: Yikes. I might need a stronger umbrella.

Trappists 1B: You betcha. And there are lots more exoplanets out there. Your astronomers haven’t been discovered yet, including a favorite of mine where it constantly rains. Crust, sauce, and cheese.

First Lieutenant: Wait, did you say crust, sauce and cheese. Crust. Sauce and cheese? Why That?

Captain Trustee: Pizza, where is this planet?

Trappists 1B: Why it’s easy to find, it’s in the constellation….

First Lieutenant: Oh no, the universal translator. It’s stopped working.

Captain Trustee: Oh, well, huh. Maybe we should just go back to earth for a slice of delicious pizza and to continue our search for more planets.

First Lieutenant: Copy headed home Captain Crusty. I mean Captain, trustee.

Trappists 1B: Save a slice for me.

Outro: A super smarty. Shout out to Johnny D in Tuska, Illinois. We heard you love learning about science, especially space. We hope you love today’s episode and we’re happy to have you smarting with us, Johnny. This episode, other solar systems was written by Deep Space Dave Bery and voiced by Sheila Milky Way, Morris, Connor Quasar Quinn and Jerry Colbert, technical direction and sound design by Josh Helix Han, who smarted his recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios. Our associate producer is Max Cosmos Kaki. The theme song is by Brian Solar Wind Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis. Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert. This has been an atomic entertainment production

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