astronomy

TRAPPIST

TRAPPIST is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand TRAPPIST rather than just read about it. In short: The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) is the corporate name for a pair of Belgian optic robotic telescopes. TRAPPIST–South, which is situated high in the Chilean mountains at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory, came online in 2010, and TRAPPIST–North situated at the Oukaïmeden Observatory in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, came online in 2016.

Key takeaways

TRAPPIST belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect TRAPPIST to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of TRAPPIST from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) is the corporate name for a pair of Belgian optic robotic telescopes. TRAPPIST–South, which is situated high in the Chilean mountains at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory, came online in 2010, and TRAPPIST–North situated at the Oukaïmeden Observatory in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, came online in 2016.

Description TRAPPIST is controlled from Liège, Belgium, with some autonomous features. It consists of two 60 cm (24 in) reflecting robotic telescopes located at the ESO La Silla Observatory (housed in the dome of the retired Swiss T70 telescope) in Chile and at Oukaïmeden Observatory in Morocco. The 60 cm f/8 Ritchey–Chrétien design telescopes and New Technology Mount NTM-500 were built by ASTELCO Systems, a company in Germany. The CCD camera was built by Finger Lakes Instrumentation (USA), providing a 22 x 22 arcminutes field of view. The camera is fitted with a double filter wheel, allowing 12 different filters and one clear position. The telescope condominium is a joint venture between the University of Liège, Belgium, and the Geneva Observatory, Switzerland, and among other tasks, it specializes in searching for comets and exoplanets. In November 2010, it was one of the few telescopes that observed a stellar occultation of the planetary body Eris, revealing that it may be smaller than Pluto, and it helped observe a stellar occultation by Makemake, when it passed in front of the star NOMAD 1181-0235723. The observations of this event showed it lacked a significant atmosphere. A team of astronomers headed by Michaël Gillon, of the Institut d'Astrophysique et Géophysique at the University of Liège in Belgium, used the telescope to observe the ultracool dwarf star 2MASS J23062928-0502285, now also known as TRAPPIST-1. By utilising transit photometry, they discovered seven terrestrial planets, at least three of which were Earth-sized, orbiting the star; the innermost two were found to be tidally locked to their host star while the outermost appears to lie either within the system's habitable zone or just outside of it. The team published its findings in the May 2016 issue of the Nature journal. While TRAPPIST-1 is the only planetary system discovered by TRAPPIST, other planetary systems have been discovered by SPECULOOS and given SPECULOOS-n designations, with TRAPPIST-1 being SPECULOOS-1.

Name As with the other space observation projects of the University of Liège like SPECULOOS, Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope is a backronym, referring to traditional Belgian Trappist beer.

Gallery

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TRAPPIST

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TRAPPIST claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TRAPPIST before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TRAPPIST ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TRAPPIST

In research: TRAPPIST appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses TRAPPIST in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: TRAPPIST is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010 establishments in Chile, Astronomical observatories in Chile, Minor-planet discovering observatories, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for TRAPPIST outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study TRAPPIST in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what TRAPPIST means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain TRAPPIST out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TRAPPIST in simple terms?

Why does TRAPPIST matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TRAPPIST?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TRAPPIST.