Florida Tech astrophysicist Howard Chen is offering new insights to help aid NASA’s search for life beyond Earth. His latest theoretical work investigates the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, one of the most widely studied exoplanetary systems in the galaxy. Astronomers are captivated by the TRAPPIST-1 system because its seven known planets are rocky and Earth-like. “Whatever we did, we couldn’t get much water in these inner planets,” Chen said. This means that instead of acquiring material for a gaseous atmosphere, planets’ atmospheres were completely cleared out by the power of the collisions.