NASA's groundbreaking discovery this week of seven new earth-sized planets outside our solar system has refueled public curiosity about space frontiers.

The planets are orbiting a tiny star called Trappist-1 that is about 40 light years away or 235 trillion miles from earth.

Old Dominion's Pretlow Planetarium will host a film screening of "Extrasolar Planets: Discovering New Worlds" on March 20 at 7 p.m. The film highlights NASA's new discovery.

Pretlow Planetarium Director Justin Mason, said the discovery is exciting because the planets are closer than we may realize, offering many academic opportunities.

"What's great about this system is it's close by, relatively speaking," he said. "It may be 40 light years away but in comparison to our galaxy which extends about 100,000 light years away, the planets are in our solar backyard. We will be able to study them."

This is the first time so many planets of this kind are being discovered orbiting the same star. Mason adds that this discovery contributes to a new branch of study related to "exoplanets" that's growing quickly in the world of astronomy.

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