An illustration of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f, which appears to be tidally locked NASA/JPL-Caltech
Some alien planets thought to be locked in place around their parent star may actually be able to rotate, creating stable climates long enough for potential life to arise – as long as any inhabitants didn’t mind sudden disruption.
Many exoplanets that closely orbit red dwarf stars, such as in the TRAPPIST-1 system, are thought to be tidally locked by their star’s gravity, so the planets have permanent day and night sides that are extremely hot or cold. …
Article amended on 17 April 2023
We have corrected the type of star in the TRAPPIST-1 system
![Nature Astronomy, doi:10.1038/s41550-022-01634-x Fig. 4 | SCExAO/CHARIS images of AB Aur at different wavelengths and observing modes. Left: polarized intensity wavelength-collapsed image obtained one day later. A pure scattered-light disk feature would have been detected at the position of AB Aur b (green circle). Instead this region shows no concentrated emission, indicating that AB Aur b is not detected. Right: emission at the approximate position of AB Aur b from VAMPIRES H? data using RDI/KLIP for PSF subtraction. From left to right, the intensity scaling is [0, 0.0925] mJy, [0, 0.055] mJy and [?0.007, 0.007] mJy, normalized to the source?s apparent FWHM. The x and y axes are in units of arcseconds east (along the x axis) and north (along the y axis).](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/04144318/SEI_97110504.jpg?width=300)