title: Filioque

text: Modern Orthodox theological scholarship is split, according to William La Due, between a group of scholars that hold to a "strict traditionalism going back to Photius" and other scholars "not so adamantly opposed to the "filioque"". The "strict traditionalist" camp is exemplified by the stance of Lossky who insisted that any notion of a double procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son was incompatible with Orthodox theology. For Lossky, this incompatibility was so fundamental that, "whether we like it or not, the question of the procession of the Holy Spirit has been the sole dogmatic grounds of the separation of East and West". Bulgakov, however, was of the opinion that the "Filioque" did not represent an insurmountable obstacle to reunion of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, an opinion shared by .


title: Filioque

text: Not all Orthodox theologians share the view taken by Lossky, Stăniloae, Romanides and Pomazansky, who condemn the "Filioque". Kallistos Ware considers this the "rigorist" position within the Orthodox Church. Ware states that a more "liberal" position on this issue "was the view of the Greeks who signed the act of union at Florence. It is a view also held by many Orthodox at the present time". He writes that "according to the 'liberal' view, the Greek and the Latin doctrines on the procession of the Holy Spirit may both alike be regarded as theologically defensible. The Greeks affirm that the Spirit proceeds from the Father "through" the Son, the Latins that He proceeds from the Father "and" from the Son; but when applied to the relationship between Son and Spirit, these two prepositions 'through' and 'from' amount to the same thing." The "Encyclopedia of Christian Theology" lists Bolotov, Paul Evdokimov, I. Voronov and Bulgakov as seeing the "Filioque" as a permissible theological opinion or "theologoumenon". Bolotov defined theologoumena as theological opinions "of those who for every catholic are more than just theologians: they are the theological opinions of the holy fathers of the one undivided church", opinions that Bolotov rated highly but that he sharply distinguished from dogmas.


title: Filioque

text: Karl Barth considered that the view prevailing in Eastern Orthodoxy was that of Bolotov, who pointed out that the Creed does not deny the "Filioque" and who concluded that the question had not caused the division and could not constitute an absolute obstacle to intercommunion between the Eastern Orthodox and the Old Catholic Church. David Guretzki wrote, in 2009, that Bolotov's view is becoming more prevalent among Orthodox theologians; and he quotes Orthodox theologian Theodore Stylianopoulos as arguing that "the theological use of the "filioque" in the West against Arian subordinationism is fully valid according to the theological criteria of the Eastern tradition".


title: Filioque

text: Yves Congar stated in 1954 that "the greater number of the Orthodox say that the "Filioque" is not a heresy or even a dogmatic error but an admissible theological opinion, a 'theologoumenon; and he cited 12th century bishop Nicetas of Nicomedia; 19th century philosopher Vladimir Solovyov; and 20th century writers Bolotov, Florovsky, and Bulgakov.


title: Filioque

text: All Oriental Orthodox Churches (Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Malankaran) use the original Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, without the Filioque clause.


title: Filioque

text: Two of the present-day churches derived from the Church of the East, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, do not use "and the Son" when reciting the Nicene Creed. A third, the Chaldean Catholic Church, a "sui iuris" Eastern Catholic Church, has recently, at the request of the Holy See, removed "and the Son" from its version of the Nicene Creed.


title: Filioque

text: Ware suggests that the problem is of semantics rather than of basic doctrinal differences. The English Language Liturgical Consultation commented that "those who strongly favor retention of the "Filioque" are often thinking of the Trinity as revealed and active in human affairs, whereas the original Greek text is concerned about relationships within the Godhead itself. As with many historic disputes, the two parties may not be discussing the same thing."


title: Filioque

text: In 1995, the pointed out an important difference in meaning between the Greek verb and the Latin verb "", both of which are commonly translated as "proceed". It stated that the Greek verb indicates that the Spirit "takes his origin from the Father ... in a principal, proper and immediate manner", while the Latin verb, which corresponds rather to the verb in Greek, can be applied to proceeding even from a mediate channel. Therefore, ("who proceeds"), used in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed to signify the proceeding of the Holy Spirit, cannot be appropriately used in the Greek language with regard to the Son, but only with regard to the Father, a difficulty that does not exist in Latin and other languages.


title: Filioque

text: Metropolitan John Zizioulas, while maintaining the explicit Orthodox position of the Father as the single origin and source of the Holy Spirit, declared that shows positive signs of reconciliation. Zizioulas states: "Closely related to the question of the single cause is the problem of the exact meaning of the Son's involvement in the procession of the Spirit. Gregory of Nyssa explicitly admits a 'mediating' role of the Son in the procession of the Spirit from the Father. Is this role to be expressed with the help of the preposition (through) the Son (), as Maximus and other Patristic sources seem to suggest?" Zizioulas continues: "The Vatican statement notes that this is 'the basis that must serve for the continuation of the current theological dialogue between Catholic and Orthodox'. I would agree with this, adding that the discussion should take place in the light of the 'single cause' principle to which I have just referred." Zizioulas adds that this "constitutes an encouraging attempt to clarify the basic aspects of the 'Filioque' problem and show that a rapprochement between West and East on this matter is eventually possible".


title: Filioque

text: Russian theologian Boris Bolotov asserted in 1898 that the "Filioque", like Photius's "from the Father "alone"", was a permissible theological opinion (a theologoumenon, not a dogma) that cannot be an absolute impediment to reestablishment of communion. Bolotov's thesis was supported by Orthodox theologians Bulgakov, Paul Evdokimov and I. Voronov, but was rejected by Lossky.


title: Filioque

text: In 1986, Theodore Stylianopoulos provided an extensive, scholarly overview of the contemporary discussion. Ware said that he had changed his mind and had concluded that "the problem is more in the area of semantics and different emphases than in any basic doctrinal differences": "the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone" and "the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son" may "both" have orthodox meanings if the words translated "proceeds" actually have different meanings. For some Orthodox, then, the "Filioque", while still a matter of conflict, would not impede full communion of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches if other issues were resolved. But 19th century Russian Slavophile theologian Aleksey Khomyakov considered the "Filioque" as an expression of formalism, rationalism, pride and lack of love for other Christians, and that it is in flagrant contravention of the words of Christ in the Gospel, has been specifically condemned by the Orthodox Church, and remains a fundamental heretical teaching which divides East and West.


title: Filioque

text: Romanides too, while personally opposing the "Filioque", stated that Constantinople I was not ever interpreted "as a condemnation" of the doctrine "outside the Creed, since it did not teach that the Son is 'cause' or 'co-cause' of the existence of the Holy Spirit. This could not be added to the Creed where 'procession' means 'cause' of existence of the Holy Spirit."


title: Filioque

text: Eastern Orthodox Christians object that, even if the teaching of the "Filioque" can be defended, its medieval interpretation and unilateral interpolation into the Creed is anti-canonical and unacceptable. "The Catholic Church acknowledges the conciliar, ecumenical, normative and irrevocable value, as expression of the one common faith of the Church and of all Christians, of the Symbol professed in Greek at Constantinople in 381 by the Second Ecumenical Council. No profession of faith peculiar to a particular liturgical tradition can contradict this expression of the faith taught and professed by the undivided Church." The Catholic Church allows liturgical use of the Apostles' Creed as well of the Nicene Creed, and sees no essential difference between the recitation in the liturgy of a creed with orthodox additions and a profession of faith outside the liturgy such that of Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople, who developed the Nicene Creed with an addition as follows: "the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father "through the Son"". It sees the addition of "and the Son" in the context of the Latin ' (who proceeds from the Father) as an elucidation of the faith expressed by the Church Fathers, since the verb ' signifies "the communication of the consubstantial divinity from the Father to the Son and from the Father, through and with the Son, to the Holy Spirit".


title: Filioque

text: Most Oriental Orthodox churches have not added the "Filoque" to their creeds but the Armenian Apostolic Church has added elucidations to the Nicene Creed. Another change made to the text of the Nicene Creed by both the Latins and the Greeks is to use the singular "I believe" in place of the plural "we believe", while all the Churches of Oriental Orthodoxy, not only the Armenian, but also the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Malankara Orthodox Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church, have on the contrary preserved the "we believe" of the original text.


title: Filioque

text: Recently, theological debate about the "Filioque" has focused on the writings of Maximus the Confessor. Siecienski writes that "Among the hundreds of figures involved in the filioque debates throughout the centuries, Maximus the Confessor enjoys a privileged position." During the lengthy proceedings at Ferrara-Florence, the Orthodox delegates presented a text from Maximus the Confessor that they felt could provide the key to resolving the theological differences between East and West.


title: Filioque

text: The states that, according to Maximus, the phrase "and from the Son" does not contradict the Holy Spirit's procession from the Father as first origin (ἐκπόρευσις), since it concerns only the Holy Spirit's coming (in the sense of the Latin word "" and Cyril of Alexandria's ) from the Son in a way that excludes any idea of subordinationism.


title: Filioque

text: Orthodox theologian and Metropolitan of Pergamon, John Zizioulas, wrote that for Maximus the Confessor "the Filioque was not heretical because its intention was to denote not the () but the () of the Spirit".


title: Filioque

text: Zizioulas also wrote that "Maximus the Confessor insisted, however, in defence of the Roman use of the Filioque, the decisive thing in this defence lies precisely in the point that in using the Filioque the Romans do not imply a "cause" other than the Father. The notion of "cause" seems to be of special significance and importance in the Greek Patristic argument concerning the Filioque. If Roman Catholic theology would be ready to admit that the Son in no way constitutes a "cause" (aition) in the procession of the Spirit, this would bring the two traditions much closer to each other with regard to the Filioque." This is precisely what Maximus said of the Roman view, that "they have shown that they have not made the Son the cause of the Spirit – they know in fact that the Father is the only cause of the Son and the Spirit, the one by begetting and the other by procession".


title: Filioque

text: The upholds the monarchy of the Father as the "sole Trinitarian Cause ["aitia"] or principle ["principium"] of the Son and the Holy Spirit". While the Council of Florence proposed the equivalency of the two terms "cause" and "principle" and therefore implied that the Son is a cause ("aitia") of the subsistence of the Holy Spirit, the distinguishes "between what the Greeks mean by 'procession' in the sense of taking origin from, applicable only to the Holy Spirit relative to the Father ("ek tou Patros ekporeuomenon"), and what the Latins mean by 'procession' as the more common term applicable to both Son and Spirit (""; "ek tou Patros kai tou Huiou proion"). This preserves the monarchy of the Father as the sole origin of the Holy Spirit while simultaneously allowing for an intratrinitarian relation between the Son and Holy Spirit that the document defines as 'signifying the communication of the consubstantial divinity from the Father to the Son and from the Father through and with the Son to the Holy Spirit'."


title: Filioque

text: Roman Catholic theologian Avery Dulles wrote that the Eastern fathers were aware of the currency of the "Filioque" in the West and did not generally regard it as heretical: Some, such as Maximus the Confessor, "defended it as a legitimate variation of the Eastern formula that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son".


title: Filioque

text: Pomazansky and Romanides hold that Maximus' position does not defend the actual way the Roman Catholic Church justifies and teaches the "Filioque" as dogma for the whole church. While accepting as a legitimate and complementary expression of the same faith and reality the teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, Maximus held strictly to the teaching of the Eastern Church that "the Father is the only cause of the Son and the Spirit": and wrote a special treatise about this dogma. The Roman Catholic Church cites Maximus as in full accord with the teaching on the "Filioque" that it proposes for the whole Church as a dogma that is in harmony with the formula "from the Father through the Son", for he explained that, by "ekporeusis", "the Father is the sole cause of the Son and the Spirit", but that, by , the Greek verb corresponding to "" (proceed) in Latin, the Spirit comes through the Son. Later again the Council of Florence, in 1438, declared that the Greek formula "from the Father through the Son" was equivalent to the Latin "from the Father and the Son", not contradictory, and that those who used the two formulas "were aiming at the same meaning in different words".


title: Filioque

text: Recently, some Orthodox theologians have proposed the substitution of the formula "ex Patre per Filium" / "εκ του Πατρός δια του Υιού" (from the Father through the Son) instead of "ex Patre Filioque" (from the Father and the Son).


title: Filioque

text: Starting in the latter half of the nineteenth century, ecumenical efforts have gradually developed more nuanced understandings of the issues underlying the "Filioque" controversy and worked to remove them as an obstruction to Christian unity. Lossky insists that the "Filioque" is so fundamentally incompatible with Orthodox Christianity as to be the central issue dividing the two churches.


title: Filioque

text: Western churches have arrived at the position that, although the "Filioque" is doctrinally sound, the way that it was inserted into the Nicene Creed has created an unnecessary obstacle to ecumenical dialogue. Thus, without abandoning the "Filioque", some Western churches have come to accept that it could be omitted from the Creed without violating any core theological principles. This accommodation on the part of Western Churches has the objective of allowing both East and West to once again to share a common understanding of the Creed as the traditional and fundamental statement of the Christian faith.


title: Filioque

text: Immediately after the Old Catholic Church separated from the Catholic Church in 1871, its theologians initiated contact with the Orthodox Church. In 1874–75, representatives of the two churches held "union conferences" in Bonn with theologians of the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church in attendance in an unofficial capacity. The conferences discussed a number of issues including the filioque controversy. From the outset, Old Catholic theologians agreed with the Orthodox position that the "Filioque" had been introduced in the West in an unacceptably non-canonical way. It was at these Bonn conferences that the Old Catholics became the first Western church to omit the "Filioque" from the Nicene Creed.


title: Filioque

text: Three Lambeth Conferences (1888, 1978 and 1988) have recommended that the "Filioque" be dropped from the Nicene Creed by churches that belong to the Anglican Communion.


title: Filioque

text: The 1930 Lambeth Conference initiated formal theological dialogue between representatives of the Anglican and Orthodox churches. In 1976, the Agreed Statement of the Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Commission recommended that the "Filioque" should be omitted from the Creed because its inclusion had been effected without the authority of an Ecumenical Council.


title: Filioque

text: In 1994, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church (US) resolved that the "Filioque" should be deleted from the Nicene Creed in the next edition of the Prayer Book. The enthronement ceremonies of three recent archbishops of Canterbury (Robert Runcie, George Carey, Rowan Williams) included recitations of the Nicene Creed that omitted the "Filioque"; this has been considered to have been "a gesture of friendship toward Orthodox guests and their Communions".


title: Filioque

text: At the end of October 2017 theologians from the Anglican Communion and Oriental Orthodox Churches signed an agreement on the Holy Spirit. This is the culmination of discussions which began in 2015. The statement of agreement confirms the omission of the Filioque clause


title: Filioque

text: In 1979, a study group of the World Council of Churches examined the "Filioque" question and recommended that "the original form of the Creed, without the "Filioque", should everywhere be recognized as the normative one and restored, so that the whole Christian people may be able ... to confess their common faith in the Holy Spirit". However, nearly a decade later, the WCC lamented that very few member churches had implemented this recommendation.


title: Filioque

text: Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have recited the Nicene Creed jointly with Patriarchs Demetrius I and Bartholomew I in Greek without the "Filioque" clause.


title: Filioque

text: The "Filioque" was discussed at the 62nd meeting of the North American Orthodox–Catholic Theological Consultation, in 2002. In October 2003, the Consultation issued an agreed statement, "The Filioque: a Church-dividing issue?", which provides an extensive review of Scripture, history, and theology. The recommendations include:


title: Filioque

text: In the judgment of the consultation, the question of the "Filioque" is no longer a "Church-dividing" issue, which would impede full reconciliation and full communion. It is for the bishops of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to review this work and to make whatever decisions would be appropriate.


title: Filioque

text: While the Filioque doctrine was traditional in the West, being declared dogmatically in 447 by Pope Leo I, the Pope whose "Tome" was approved at the Council of Chalcedon, its inclusion in the Creed appeared in the anti-Arian situation of 7th-century Spain. However, this dogma was never accepted in the East. The "Filioque", included in the Creed by certain anti-Arian councils in Spain, was a means to affirm the full divinity of the Son in relation to both the Father and the Spirit.


title: Filioque

text: A similar anti-Arian emphasis also strongly influenced the development of the liturgy in the East, for example, in promoting prayer to "Christ Our God", an expression which also came to find a place in the West, where, largely as a result of "the Church's reaction to Teutonic Arianism", Christ our God' ... gradually assumes precedence over 'Christ our brother. In this case, a common adversary, namely Arianism, had profound, far-reaching effects, in the orthodox reaction in both East and West.


title: Filioque

text: Church politics, authority conflicts, ethnic hostility, linguistic misunderstanding, personal rivalry, forced conversions, large scale wars, political intrigue, unfilled promises and secular motives all combined in various ways to divide East and West.


title: Filioque

text: The doctrine expressed by the phrase in Latin (in which the word "procedit" that is linked with "Filioque" does not have exactly the same meaning and overtones as the word used in Greek) is definitively upheld by the Western Church, having been dogmatically declared by Leo I, and upheld by councils at Lyon and Florence that the Western Church recognizes as ecumenical, by the unanimous witness of the Latin Church Fathers (as Maximus the Confessor acknowledged) and even by Popes who, like Leo III, opposed insertion of the word into the Creed.


title: Filioque

text: That the doctrine is heretical is something that not all Orthodox now insist on. According to Ware, many Orthodox (whatever may be the doctrine and practice of the Eastern Orthodox Church itself) hold that, in broad outline, to say the Spirit proceeds from the Father "and" the Son amounts to the same thing as to say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father "through" the Son, a view accepted also by the Greeks who signed the act of union at the Council of Florence. For others, such as Bolotov and his disciples, the "Filioque" can be considered a Western "theologoumenon", a theological opinion of Church Fathers that falls short of being a dogma. Bulgakov also stated: "There is no dogma of the relation of the Holy Spirit to the Son and therefore particular opinions on this subject are not heresies but merely dogmatic hypotheses, which have been transformed into heresies by the schismatic spirit that has established itself in the Church and that eagerly exploits all sorts of liturgical and even cultural differences."


title: Esther Povitsky

text: Esther Povitsky (born March 2, 1988), formerly known by the stage name "Little Esther", is an American actress and comedian. She is the co-creator and star of the comedy series "Alone Together" (2018), and starred as Izzy in the Hulu series "Dollface". Her debut comedy special, "Hot for My Name", premiered on Comedy Central on July 17, 2020.


title: Esther Povitsky

text: Esther Povitsky was born in Chicago, Illinois to Mary and Morrie Povitsky. Her father is of Russian-Jewish descent and her mother is a Christian of Finnish descent who worked as an administrative assistant at the Youth Services of Glenview/Northbrook. She has one older half-sister from her mother's first marriage. Povitsky was raised in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, where she graduated from Niles North High School in 2006.


title: Esther Povitsky

text: Following high school, Povitsky attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for three years before dropping out to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and acting. "I was really unhappy at my school," Povitsky recalled. "A lot of people were in sororities and a lot of people drank all the time, and I wasn't into either of those things, so I really did not feel like I fit in." She subsequently studied comedy at iO Chicago and The Second City in Chicago before relocating to Los Angeles, where she took classes with The Groundlings. In Los Angeles, Povitsky has performed regularly at The Comedy Store, The Ice House, and The Improv.


title: Esther Povitsky

text: Povitsky recurred as Maya on the series "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" from 2016 until 2019. Other television appearances include "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", "Love", and "Parks and Recreation." Povitsky also survived several rounds of 2015's "Last Comic Standing" (season 9).


title: Esther Povitsky

text: Povitsky was the first female guest to appear on "The Joe Rogan Experience", after which she began podcasting with Deathsquad.tv regularly. She hosted "Little Esther's Piecast" and was the former co-host of "Brode & Esther" with fellow comedian Brody Stevens as well as "Weird Adults with Little Esther" and "Glowing Up", a makeup and beauty-themed podcast which she co-hosts with writer Caroline Goldfarb. She often appears as a guest on the network's "Ice House Chronicles".


title: Esther Povitsky

text: In 2012, Povitsky turned down an offer from MTV to do a reality show based on her life as a comedian because she felt the series would be too invasive.


title: Esther Povitsky

text: In 2015, Povitsky wrote, starred in, and produced the short film "Alone Together". The short was later adapted into a pilot for Freeform, produced by The Lonely Island. In December 2016, the pilot was picked up to series. In October, 2017, Freeform renewed the series for a second season ahead of its January 2018 debut. The series was canceled after its second season in 2019.


title: Esther Povitsky

text: On July 17, 2020, Povitsky's debut comedy special, "Hot for My Name", was released through Comedy Central.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1 is an ultra-cool red dwarf star in the constellation Aquarius with a planetary system of seven known planets. Its mass is about 9% of the Sun's with a radius slightly larger than the planet Jupiter and a surface temperature of about . The star is from the Sun and is estimated to be 7.6 billion years old, making it older than the Solar System.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The star was discovered in 2000 and its planets were discovered in 2016 and 2017 based on observations from the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) at La Silla Observatory in Chile and numerous other telescopes. Following the initial discovery of two terrestrial planets in orbit around TRAPPIST-1, a data "anomaly" was found to be caused by five more planets. Their orbital periods – the time each planet takes to orbit the star – range roughly from 1.5 to 19 Earth days. The gravity of TRAPPIST-1's planets holds them in orbital resonance, which could have existed since the formation of the planetary system. The planets are likely to be tidally locked to TRAPPIST-1, which would force them to keep the same side facing their host star at all times.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: As many as four of the planets ("d", "e", "f", "g") are potentially hospitable to life, having orbits in the star's habitable zone. There is no clear evidence that any of the planets have an atmosphere and it is unclear whether the planets could retain an atmosphere given TRAPPIST-1's radiation emission. Given their low densities, the planets may consist of large amounts of volatile material.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1 is in the constellation Aquarius, five degrees south of the celestial equator. The name is a reference to the TRAPPIST project that discovered the first two exoplanets around the star; other designations for the star are 2MUCD 12171, 2MASS J23062928–0502285, EPIC 246199087, K2-112, SPECULOOS-1 and TRAPPIST-1a. TRAPPIST-1 is a very close star, parallax measurements have yielded a distance of from the Solar System, and has a large proper motion. There is no evidence that TRAPPIST-1 has companion stars.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf, a cold star with a smaller mass than the Sun. Red dwarfs include the spectral types M and K, and TRAPPIST-1 belongs to class M. Its mass is about 8.98% of the Sun's mass, only barely sufficient mass to allow nuclear fusion to take place. Slightly larger than Jupiter, its radius is 11.9% that of the Sun. While denser than the Sun, TRAPPIST-1 has an unusually low density for its kind of star. Its luminosity is only about 0.055% that of the Sun and is mostly infrared radiation; it is not variable and there is no evidence for a solar cycle. TRAPPIST-1 has an effective temperature of , making it the coldest known star () to host planets. Dwarf stars like TRAPPIST-1 are over ten times more common than Sun-like stars and these stars are more likely to host small planets than Sun-like stars, although systems with multiple planets like TRAPPIST-1 might not be widespread.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Stars like TRAPPIST-1 are so cold that clouds consisting of condensates and dust can form in their photosphere. Patterns of TRAPPIST-1's radiation indicate the existence of dust, which is distributed evenly across the star's surface. The faint radiation at short wavelengths that TRAPPIST-1 emits has been measured with the XMM-Newton satellite and in later surveys, although with low precision.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: In 2016, TRAPPIST-1's rotational period was first measured as , a typical period for M dwarfs. Measurements by the Kepler space telescope published in 2017 showed that the star may instead rotate about every , though that may constitute the rotation period of active regions rather than stellar rotation according to Miles-Páez et al. (2019). , discrepancies between rotational data obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope and Kepler space telescope remain unexplained. The rotation axis of TRAPPIST-1 might be slightly offset from that of its planets.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Based on a combination of techniques, an age of about billion years has been established for TRAPPIST-1, making it older than the Solar System. TRAPPIST-1 is expected to shine for ten trillion years – about 700 times longer than the present age of the Universe – whereas the Sun will leave its main sequence (run out of hydrogen) in a few billion years.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Numerous photospheric features have been detected on TRAPPIST-1. Possible faculae (bright spots) have been observed by the Kepler space telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, but some of TRAPPIST-1's bright spots may be too large to count as faculae. A correlation between bright spots and flare activity has been found. The photospheric features may introduce inaccuracies in measurements of its planets. The effect of bright spots on the luminosity of TRAPPIST-1 may lead to the planets' densities being underestimated by percent, and to incorrect estimates of their water content. The mean intensity of TRAPPIST-1's magnetic field is about although many of its properties cannot be directly measured. This intense magnetic field is driven by chromospheric activity and may be capable of trapping coronal mass ejections.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Stars lose mass through the stellar wind. Garraffo et al. (2017) computed the mass loss of TRAPPIST-1 to be about solar masses per year, about 1.5 times that of the Sun, while Dong et al. (2018) simulated the observed properties of TRAPPIST-1 with a mass loss of solar masses per year. The stellar wind properties of TRAPPIST-1 are not precisely determined.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1's seven planets – TRAPPIST-1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, and 1h – are named in alphabetic order according to their discovery and distance from TRAPPIST-1 Each takes between 1.5 to 19 Earth days to orbit the star, and orbits at distances of about to . All of them are much closer to TRAPPIST-1 than Mercury is to the Sun, making TRAPPIST-1 a very compact planetary system. No evidence of additional planets around TRAPPIST-1 has been found, and the existence of gas planets more than 4.6 times as massive as Jupiter at an orbital period of 1 year, and of a planet more massive than 1.6 Jupiter masses at 5 years can be ruled out. A hypothetical eighth planet would be designated TRAPPIST-1i, and its orbital properties have been predicted under the assumption that it orbits exterior to planet h and is part of the planetary resonance. Kral et al. (2018) did not detect any comets around TRAPPIST-1, and Marino et al. (2020) found no evidence of a Kuiper belt although it is questionable that a Solar System-like belt around TRAPPIST-1 would be visible from Earth. Observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope have found no evidence of a circumstellar dust disk, implying that if it does exist it is of low mass. It is thought that most of the solid material around TRAPPIST-1 was converted into planets.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The inclinations of the orbits relative to the system's ecliptic are less than 1°, making TRAPPIST-1 the flattest planetary system in the NASA Exoplanet Archive. They are highly circular, with minimal eccentricities, and well-aligned with the spin axis of TRAPPIST-1. The planets all orbit in the same plane and, from the perspective of the Solar System, move past ("transit") TRAPPIST-1 during their orbit and frequently pass in front of each other.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The radii of the planets are estimated to lie within the range of 75% to 150% that of Earth, equivalent to Mars-sized to slightly larger than Earth. The planet–star mass ratio of the TRAPPIST-1 system resembles both the analogous ratio of the Solar System and the moons–planet mass ratio of the Solar System gas giants.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The TRAPPIST-1 planets are expected to have similar compositions to each other and to Earth. The estimated densities of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are lower than Earth's which may imply that their cores are smaller than that of Earth, that they have large amounts of volatiles, that their iron exists in an oxidised form rather than as a core, in a core that includes large amounts of other elements, or that they are rocky planets with less iron than Earth. The densities are too low for a pure magnesium silicate composition, requiring lower-density molecular compounds to be present, such as water. Planets b, d, f, g and h are expected to contain large quantities of volatile compounds. The planets may thus feature large atmospheres, oceans and quantities of ice. A number of composition scenarios are possible considering the large uncertainties in the density.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The planets are in orbital resonances, with the durations of their orbits having ratios of 8:5, 5:3, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 3:2 between neighbouring planet pairs, and with each set of three being in a Laplace resonance. N-body simulations have shown that such resonances can remain stable over billions of years, but that their stability is strongly dependent on initial conditions; for many initial configurations they become unstable after less than a million years. Scientists have used this conditional stability to make estimates of the masses of the TRAPPIST-1 planets. The resonances make the planets go alternately ahead and behind in their orbits over the resonance periods, in greater amounts than simple estimates indicate, something which makes studies of the system easier such as measuring the planets' masses when other techniques are not available. The resonances and the proximity to their host star have led to the planetary system being compared to the Galilean moons of Jupiter. Kepler-223 is another exoplanet system with a TRAPPIST-1-like long resonance.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The close distances of the planets to the host star TRAPPIST-1 result in strong tidal interactions, stronger than for Earth. Tidal forces are dominated by the star's contributions and result in all planets having reached an equilibrium with slow rotation of the planets and tidal locking, which can imply that the rotation of a planet and its revolution around its star are synchronised. However, the mutual interactions of the planets could prevent them from reaching a full synchronisation by forcing periodic or episodic full rotations of the planets' surfaces with respect to the star – on timescales of several Earth years – which would have important implications for the climate of the planets. Vinson, Tamayo and Hansen (2019) found that the planets TRAPPIST-1d, e, and f likely have chaotic rotations due to interactions with each other, preventing them from becoming synchronized to the star. Lack of synchronization potentially makes the planets more habitable. Other processes that can act to prevent synchronous rotation are triaxial torques of the planets, which would allow them to enter 3:2 resonances.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The resonances continually excite the eccentricities of the TRAPPIST-1 planets, preventing their orbits from becoming fully circular. As a consequence, the planets of TRAPPIST-1 are likely to undergo substantial tidal heating, which would facilitate volcanism and outgassing, especially on the innermost planets. This heat source is likely dominant over the one provided by radioactive decay, although both have substantial uncertainties and are considerably less than the incoming stellar radiation. According to Luger et al. (2017), for the four innermost planets tidal heating is expected to be greater than the total inner heat flux on Earth, and Quick et al. (2020) suggest that heating in the outer planets could be comparable to that in the Solar System bodies Europa, Enceladus and Triton.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Even if tidal heating does not significantly alter the climates of the planets, tidal heating could influence the temperatures of the night sides and cold traps, where gases are expected to accumulate; it would influence the properties of subsurface oceans where volcanism and hydrothermal venting could occur. It could be sufficient to melt the mantles of the four innermost planets, in whole or in part, potentially forming subsurface magma oceans. Moreover, it would increase the degassing from the mantle and facilitate the establishment of atmospheres around the planets. Intense tides could fracture the planets' crusts, inducing earthquakes, even if they are not sufficiently strong to trigger the onset of plate tectonics. The TRAPPIST-1 planets may have substantial seismic activity due to tidal effects. Tidal phenomena can influence the masses of the planets observed from Earth. Tides can also be excited in the atmospheres of the planets, if atmospheres exist.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Because TRAPPIST-1 radiates mostly infrared radiation, there is likely to be very little visible light on the planets' surfaces, with Amaury H.M.J. Triaud, one of their co-discoverers, suggesting that the skies would never be brighter than Earth's sky at sunset and only a little brighter than a night with a full moon. Ignoring atmospheric effects, illumination would be orange-red. All the planets would be visible from each other and would in many cases appear larger than the Moon in the sky of Earth, but at least TRAPPIST-1e, f and g cannot experience any total eclipses. The higher wavelength of TRAPPIST-1's radiation compared to that of the Sun means that it would be absorbed to a greater degree by water and carbon dioxide. It would also be less scattered or reflected by ice, although the development of highly reflective hydrohalite ice may negate this effect. Consequently, the same amount of radiation results in a warmer planet compared to a Sun-like irradiation with more radiation being absorbed at the top of an atmosphere rather than the bottom.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Three or four planets – , , and or , , and – are located inside the habitable zone. , this is the largest known number of planets within the habitable zone of a star or star system. Whether liquid water actually occurs on any of the planets depends on several other factors, namely the albedo (reflectivity), the presence or absence of a strong greenhouse effect on each planet and presence or absence of an atmosphere. Hence, surface conditions are difficult to constrain without better knowledge of the planets' atmospheres. Additionally, a synchronously rotating planet might not necessarily freeze over entirely if it receives too little radiation from its star, since the dayside could be heated sufficiently to halt the progress of a glaciation. Other factors for the occurrence of liquid water include the presence of oceans and vegetation, the reflective properties of the land surface and the configuration of continents and oceans, cloud and sea ice dynamics. Inclusion of the effects of volcanic activity may extend the habitable zone of TRAPPIST-1 to TRAPPIST-1h.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Intense extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and X-rays can cause water to escape from planets, by splitting it into hydrogen along with oxygen gas, and heating the upper atmosphere until they escape from the planet. This was particularly important early in the star's history, when radiation was more intense and could have heated every planet's water to its boiling point. This process is believed to have removed the water from Venus. In the case of TRAPPIST-1, different studies with different assumptions on the kinetics, energetics and extreme ultraviolet emissions have come to different conclusions on whether any TRAPPIST-1 planet can retain substantial amounts of water. Additionally, given that the planets are most likely tidally locked, water could become trapped on their night side and unavailable to support life, unless atmospheric heat transport or tidal heating are intense enough to melt the ice.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: No moons with a size comparable to Earth's have been detected around TRAPPIST-1, and moons are unlikely in such a densely packed planetary system. This is because such moons would likely be either torn apart by their planet's gravity after going inside the planet's Roche limit or stripped from the planet by going outside of the planet's Hill radius. While the TRAPPIST-1 planets appear in an analysis of potential exomoon hosts, they do not appear in the list of habitable zone exoplanets that could host a moon for a substantial amount of time. It is not impossible that the planets could host moons, though.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The TRAPPIST-1 planets are expected to be within the Alfvén surface of their host star; the area around the star within which any planet would directly magnetically interact with the corona of the star, possibly destabilising any atmosphere the planet has. Stellar energetic particles would not create a substantial radiation hazard for organisms on TRAPPIST-1 planets, if atmospheres reach pressures of about . Estimates of radiation fluxes have considerable uncertainties owing to the lack of knowledge about the structure of the magnetic field of TRAPPIST-1.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Induction heating from time-varying electrical and magnetic fields of TRAPPIST-1 may occur on its planets but has no substantial contribution to their energy balance and is vastly exceeded by tidal heating.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The TRAPPIST-1 planets most likely formed at larger distances from the star and migrated inward, although they may have formed where they currently are. Ormel et al. (2017) proposed that the TRAPPIST-1 planets formed when a streaming instability at the water-ice line gave rise to precursor bodies, which accumulated additional fragments and migrated inward, eventually giving rise to the planets. The pace of migration may initially have been fast, then slow, and tidal effects may have further influenced the formation processes. The distribution of the fragments would control the mass the planets end up having at the end, and the planets would consist of 10% water, which is consistent with inference from observations. Resonant chains like these of TRAPPIST-1 usually become unstable when the gas disk that gave rise to them dissipates, but in this case they remained in the resonance. The resonance may have either been present from the start and was preserved when the planets moved inward simultaneously, or it might have formed later, when inward migrating planets accumulated at the outer edge of the gas disk and interacted with each other. Inward migrating planets would contain substantial amounts of water, too much for it to escape completely, whereas planets that formed in their current location would most likely lose it all. According to Flock et al. (2019), the orbital distance of the innermost planet TRAPPIST-1b is consistent with the expected radius of an inward moving planet around a star that was one order of magnitude brighter in the past and with the cavity in the protoplanetary disk created by TRAPPIST-1's magnetic field. Alternatively, TRAPPIST-1h may have formed in its current location or close to it.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The presence of additional bodies and planetesimals early in the system's history would have destabilised the TRAPPIST-1 resonance if the bodies were massive enough. Raymond et al. (2021) thus concluded that the TRAPPIST-1 planets assembled in 1–2 million years, and that once the assembly process was complete, only little additional mass was accreted. This would limit any late delivery of water to the planets and also implies that the planets cleared the neighbourhood of any additional material. The lack of giant impacts would help the planets preserve their volatile inventory.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Due to a combination of high insolation, the greenhouse effect of water vapour atmospheres and remnant heat from the process of planet assembly, the TRAPPIST-1 planets would likely have started off with a molten surface. The planets would have cooled until the magma oceans solidified, which might have taken between a few billions and a few millions of years in the case of TRAPPIST-1b. The outer planets would have become cold enough for water vapour to condense.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: , there is no definitive evidence that any of the TRAPPIST-1 planets has an atmosphere. For a number of reasons, with existing telescopes and observations one cannot infer whether any of the planets around TRAPPIST-1 have an atmosphere or its composition. Several studies have simulated how various atmospheric scenarios would look to observations, and the chemical processes underpinning these atmospheric compositions.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The existence of atmospheres around TRAPPIST-1 planets is a function of the balance between the evaporation of such an atmosphere, the amount of atmosphere initially present and the rate at which it is built back up by the impact of meteorites, material incoming from a protoplanetary disk and outgassing/volcanic activity. Impact events would be particularly important in the outer planets, as impact events can both add and remove volatiles from the planets; in the outermost planets addition is likely dominant. The properties of TRAPPIST-1 are unfavourable to the continued existence of atmospheres around its planets; on the other hand the formation conditions of the planets would give them large initial volatile inventories, including oceans more than hundred times larger than Earth's. The outer planets are more likely to have atmospheres than the inner ones.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: If the planets are tidally locked to TRAPPIST-1 and one side of their surface always faces away from the star, it can cool down sufficiently for any atmosphere to freeze out on the night side. This frozen-out atmosphere could be recycled through glacier-like flow of the frozen-out material to the dayside, helped by heating (tidal or geothermal) from below, or could be stirred by impact events. These processes could allow an atmosphere to persist. In the case of a carbon dioxide atmosphere, carbon dioxide ice is denser than water ice and thus tends to be buried under water ice; carbon dioxide-water compounds named clathrates can form; and a potential runaway feedback loop between ice melting and evaporation and the greenhouse effect additionally complicate matters.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Numerical modelling and observations constrain the properties of hypothetical atmospheres around TRAPPIST-1 planets:


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Theoretical modeling of Krissansen-Totton and Fortney (2022) suggest that the inner planets most likely have oxygen- and carbon dioxide-rich atmospheres, if any. If the planets have an atmosphere, the amount of precipitation, its form and where it occurs would be determined by the presence and position of mountains and oceans and the rotation period. The planets that are in the habitable zone are expected to have a global Rossby number larger than 1, which would make their atmospheres "tropical" with only small temperature gradients. Whether greenhouse gases could accumulate on the outer TRAPPIST-1 planets in sufficient quantities to warm them to the melting point of water is controversial. On a synchronously rotating planet, carbon dioxide could freeze and precipitate on the night side and ammonia and methane would be destroyed by the extreme ultraviolet radiation from TRAPPIST-1. Carbon dioxide freezing-out can occur only on the outermost planets unless special conditions are met, and other volatiles do not freeze out.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Detecting atmospheres around the TRAPPIST-1 planets may be possible. Because the visibility of an exoplanet and of its atmosphere scale with the inverse square of the radius of its host star, the atmospheres of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets could be detected in the future. Detecting individual components of the atmospheres (in particular carbon dioxide, ozone and water) would also be possible, although different components would require different conditions and different numbers of transits. A contamination of the atmospheric signals through patterns in the stellar photosphere is an additional problem.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The emission of extreme ultraviolet radiation by a star has an important influence on the stability of the atmospheres of its planets, their composition and the habitability of their surface, as it can power the ongoing removal of atmospheres – atmospheric escape – from planets. M dwarfs emit large amounts of extreme ultraviolet radiation, and TRAPPIST-1 and the Sun emit about the same amount of extreme ultraviolet radiation. TRAPPIST-1 has been emitting radiation for much longer, and since its planets are much closer to their star than the Sun's, they receive a much more intense irradiation. Extreme ultraviolet radiation-induced atmospheric escape has been observed on gas giants. The process of escape has been mainly modelled in the context of hydrogen-rich atmospheres, while little quantitative research has been done on other compositions such as water or carbon dioxide.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1 is moderately to highly active and this may be an additional hurdle for atmospheres and water to persist on the planets:


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The history of the star also influences the atmospheres of its planets. Initially after its formation, TRAPPIST-1 would have been in a pre-main sequence state, which may have lasted between hundreds of millions of years and roughly two billion years. During this state, it would have been considerably brighter than today and the intense irradiation would have impacted the atmospheres of surrounding planets, vaporising all common volatiles such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and water. Thus, all planets of the system would have been heated to a runaway greenhouse for at least part of their existence. The extreme ultraviolet radiation would have been even higher during the pre-main sequence stage as well.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1b has a semi-major axis of and orbits its star in Earth days; it is expected to be tidally locked. The planet is not within the habitable zone as its expected irradiation is more than 4 times that of Earth. It has a measured diameter and mass slightly larger than Earth, but its density estimates imply that it actually does not consist exclusively of rock. Owing to its black body temperature of , TRAPPIST-1b may have suffered a runaway greenhouse effect similar to the planet Venus and if it does have an atmosphere, it may be similarly thick, dense and hot. Based on numerous climate models, the planet would have been desiccated by TRAPPIST-1's stellar wind and radiation and it could be losing hydrogen and therefore any hydrogen-dominated atmosphere extremely fast in TRAPPIST-1's environment. Water, if any exists, could persist only in specific settings on the planet, and its actual surface temperature could be as high as , making TRAPPIST-1b a candidate magma ocean planet.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1c has a semi-major axis of and orbits its star every Earth days. It is close enough to TRAPPIST-1 to be tidally locked and could have a thick Venus-like atmosphere or lack one altogether. TRAPPIST-1c is not within the habitable zone as it receives about twice as much irradiation as Earth and thus either was or still is a runaway greenhouse. Based on numerous climate models, the planet would have been desiccated by TRAPPIST-1's stellar wind and radiation. TRAPPIST-1c could harbour water only in specific settings on its surface. It may be losing hydrogen at a rate of based on Hubble Space Telescope observations, although 2017 observations showed no escaping hydrogen.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1d has a semi-major axis of and an orbital period of 4 Earth days. It is more massive than the planet Mars but is less dense. Based on fluid dynamical arguments, TRAPPIST-1d is expected to have weak temperature gradients on its surface if it is tidally locked, and may have significantly different stratospheric dynamics from Earth. Based on numerous climate models, the planet may or may not have been desiccated by TRAPPIST-1's stellar wind and radiation although density estimates of the planet, if confirmed, demonstrate that it is not dense enough to consist solely of rock. The current state of TRAPPIST-1d depends on its rotation and climatic factors like cloud feedbacks; it may be at the inner edge, or beyond, the habitable zone and in a runaway greenhouse state. Water could most likely persist only in specific settings on the planet.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1e has a semi-major axis of and orbits its star every Earth days. It is expected to have been in the habitable zone for a long time, assuming only orbital perturbations. It has an Earth-like density. Based on numerous climate models, the planet is the most likely one to have retained its water, and the one most likely to have it in liquid form for many different climate states. A dedicated climate model project called TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI) has been launched to study potential climate states of this planet. Based on Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Lyman-alpha radiation emissions, TRAPPIST-1e may be losing hydrogen at a rate of .


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1e is in a comparable position within the habitable zone to Proxima Centauri b. It also has an Earth-like density. TRAPPIST-1e could have kept up to several Earth ocean masses of water. Moderate quantities of carbon dioxide could warm TRAPPIST-1e up to temperatures adequate for liquid water to exist. Models of tidal effects on TRAPPIST-1e have been created.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1f has a semi-major axis of and orbits its star every Earth days. It is expected to have been in the habitable zone for a long time, assuming only orbital perturbations. It is likely too far away from its host star to sustain liquid water, instead forming an entirely glaciated snowball planet but moderate quantities of carbon dioxide could warm TRAPPIST-1f up to temperatures adequate for liquid water to exist. TRAPPIST-1f could have kept up to several Earth ocean masses of water that could make up as much as 50% of the planet's mass; it could thus be an ocean planet.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1g has a semi-major axis of and orbits its star every Earth days. It is likely too far away from its host star to sustain liquid water, instead forming a snowball. However, either moderate quantities of carbon dioxide or internal heat from radioactive decay and tidal heating may warm its surface to above the melting point of water. TRAPPIST-1g could have kept up to several Earth ocean masses of water and density estimates of the planet, if confirmed, demonstrate that it is not dense enough to consist solely of rock. It may consist of up to 50% water by mass.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1h has a semi-major axis of and is the system's least massive planet and orbits its star every Earth days. It is likely too far away from its host star to sustain liquid water and may instead be a snowball planet or resemble Titan and have a methane/nitrogen atmosphere. Large quantities of carbon dioxide, as well as hydrogen or methane or internal heat from radioactive decay and tidal heating, would be needed to warm TRAPPIST-1h up to temperatures adequate for liquid water to exist. TRAPPIST-1h could have kept up to several Earth ocean masses.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Detecting life at TRAPPIST-1 may be possible, and the star's planets are considered a promising target for such a detection. Theoretical estimates have indicated that on the basis of atmospheric stability, the probability of TRAPPIST-1e – the planet most likely to harbour life – to be actually inhabited is considerably less than that of Earth.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: A search for technosignatures that would indicate the existence of past or present technology from the TRAPPIST-1 system in 2017 found only signals coming from Earth. In less than two millennia Earth will be transiting in front of the Sun (from the viewpoint of TRAPPIST-1), which would make it possible to detect life on Earth from TRAPPIST-1.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1 was discovered in 2000, during a survey of Two Micron All-Sky Survey data for the identification of close-by ultra-cool dwarf stars. Its planetary system was discovered by a team led by Michaël Gillon, a Belgian astronomer of the University of Liege, in 2016, during observations made from the La Silla Observatory, Chile, using the TRAPPIST telescope. Anomalies in the light curves measured by the telescope in 2015 led to the discovery of TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c and a third planet. In 2016, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the ground-based TRAPPIST and TRAPPIST-North in the Oukaïmeden Observatory of Morocco, the South African Astronomical Observatory in South Africa and the Liverpool Telescopes and William Herschel Telescopes, both in Spain. revealed that this third planet was in fact multiple planets. The observations of TRAPPIST-1 are considered among the most important research findings of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Observations by the Himalayan Chandra Telescope, the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and Very Large Telescope complemented the findings by the TRAPPIST telescope. Research since then has confirmed the existence of at least seven planets in the system, with their orbits constrained by measurements from the Spitzer and Kepler telescopes. The discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planets is often incorrectly attributed to NASA, but in actuality the TRAPPIST project that led to their discovery involved funding from both NASA and the European Research Council of the European Union.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planets drew widespread attention in major world newspapers, social media, streaming TV and websites. , the discovery of TRAPPIST-1 led to the largest single-day web traffic to the NASA website. NASA started a public campaign on Twitter to find names for the planets, which drew numerous serious and less serious responses, although the names of the planets will be decided by the International Astronomical Union. The dynamics of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system have been represented as music, such as Tim Pyle's "Trappist Transits", in Isolation's single "Trappist-1 (A Space Anthem)" and Leah Asher's piano work "TRAPPIST-1". The alleged discovery of an SOS signal from TRAPPIST-1 was an April Fools prank by the researchers at the High Energy Stereoscopic System in Namibia. A giclée digital artwork of the TRAPPIST-1 system, "TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System as seen from Space", was created in 2018 by Aldo Spadoni. A website was created dedicated to the TRAPPIST-1 system.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: Exoplanets often feature in science fiction works. Books, comics and video games have featured the TRAPPIST-1 system, the earliest being "The Terminator", a short story by the Swiss author Laurence Suhner published in the same academic journal that announced the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system. At least one conference has been set up to recognise works of fiction featuring TRAPPIST-1. The planets have been used as the basis of science education competitions, school projects and websites offering TRAPPIST-1-like planets as settings of virtual reality simulations exist, such as the "Exoplanet Travel Bureau" and the "Exoplanets Excursion" both of NASA. Scientific accuracy has been a point of discussion for such cultural depictions of TRAPPIST-1 planets.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1 has drawn intense scientific interest. Its planets are the most easily studied planets within the habitable zone outside of the Solar System, owing to their relative closeness, the small size of their host star, and the fact that, from Earth's perspective, they frequently pass in front of their host star. Future observations with space-based observatories and ground-based facilities may allow insights in the properties, such as density, atmospheres and biosignatures of TRAPPIST-1 planets; they are considered an important observation target for the James Webb Space Telescope and other telescopes under construction. Together with the discovery of Proxima Centauri b, the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planets and the fact that about three of TRAPPIST-1's planets are within its habitable zone has led to an upswing of studies on planetary habitability, and the planets are considered prototypical for the research on the habitability of M dwarfs. The star has been subject of detailed studies of its various aspects, including the possible effects of vegetation and whether an ocean could be detected by using starlight reflected off its surface, and even discussions of possible efforts to terraform its planets and difficulties inhabitants of the planets would face with interstellar travel and with discovering the law of gravitation.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: The role that European Union funding played in the discovery of TRAPPIST-1 has been cited as an example of the importance of European Union projects, and the involvement of a Moroccan observatory as an indication of the role of the Arab world in science. The original discoverers were affiliated with universities spanning Africa, Europe and North America and the discovery of TRAPPIST-1 is considered to be an example of the importance of cooperation among multiple observatories. It is also one of the major astronomical discoveries from Chilean observatories.


title: TRAPPIST-1

text: TRAPPIST-1 is too far away from Earth to be reached by humans with current or expected technology. Spacecraft mission designs using present-day rockets and gravity slingshots would need hundreds of thousands of years to reach TRAPPIST-1; even a theoretical interstellar probe travelling at the speed of light would need decades to reach the star. The speculative Breakthrough Starshot proposal for sending small laser-accelerated unmanned probes would require around two centuries to reach TRAPPIST-1.


title: Didius Julianus

text: Marcus Didius Julianus (; 29 January 133 or 137 – 2 June 193) was Roman emperor for nine weeks from March to June 193, during the Year of the Five Emperors. Julianus had a promising political career, governing several provinces, including Dalmatia and Germania Inferior, and defeated the Chauci and Chatti, two invading Germanic tribes. He was even appointed to the consulship in 175 along with Pertinax as a reward, before being demoted by Commodus. After this demotion, his early, promising political career languished.


title: Didius Julianus

text: Julianus ascended the throne after buying it from the Praetorian Guard, who had assassinated his predecessor Pertinax. A civil war ensued in which three rival generals laid claim to the imperial throne. Septimius Severus, commander of the legions in Pannonia and the nearest of the generals to Rome, marched on the capital, gathering support along the way and routing cohorts of the Praetorian Guard Julianus sent to meet him. Abandoned by the Senate and the Praetorian Guard, Julianus was killed by a soldier in the palace and succeeded by Severus.


title: Didius Julianus

text: Julianus was born to Quintus Petronius Didius Severus and Aemilia Clara. His father came from a prominent family in Mediolanum, modern-day Milan, and his mother was a North African woman of Roman descent, from a family of consular rank. His brothers were Didius Proculus and Didius Nummius Albinus. His date of birth was 29 January, the year given as 133 by Cassius Dio and 137 by the "Historia Augusta". Didius Julianus was raised by Domitia Calvilla, mother of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. With Domitia's help, he was appointed at a very early age to the "vigintivirate", the first step towards public distinction. He married a Roman woman named Manlia Scantilla, and sometime around 153, she bore him a daughter, Didia Clara, their only child.


title: Didius Julianus

text: In succession Julianus held the offices of quaestor and aedile, and then, around 162, was named as praetor. He was nominated to the command of the Legio XXII Primigenia in Mogontiacum (now Mainz). In 170, he became praefectus of Gallia Belgica and served for five years. After repelling an invasion by the Chauci, a tribe dwelling in the drainage basin of the river Scheldt, the northwestern coastal area of present-day Germany, he was raised to the consulship in 175 along with Pertinax. He further distinguished himself in a campaign against the Chatti, governed Dalmatia and Germania Inferior. He was then made prefect, charged with distributing money to the poor of Italy. Modern historians generally consider this a demotion for political reasons, as Commodus, the Roman Emperor at the time, feared Julianus' growing power. It was around this time that he was charged with having conspired against the life of Commodus, but the jury acquitted him and instead punished his accuser. Afterwards, he governed Bithynia and succeeded Pertinax as the proconsul of North Africa.


title: Didius Julianus

text: After the murder of Pertinax on 28 March 193, the Praetorian guard announced that the throne was to be sold to the man who would pay the highest price. Titus Flavius Claudius Sulpicianus, prefect of Rome and Pertinax's father-in-law, who was in the Praetorian camp ostensibly to calm the troops, began making offers for the throne. Meanwhile, Julianus also arrived at the camp, and since his entrance was barred, shouted out offers to the guard. After hours of bidding, Sulpicianus promised 20,000 sesterces to every soldier; Julianus, fearing that Sulpicianus would gain the throne, then offered 25,000. The guards closed with the offer of Julianus, threw open the gates, and proclaimed him emperor. Threatened by the military, the Senate also declared him emperor. His wife and his daughter both received the title Augusta.


title: Didius Julianus

text: Upon his accession, Julianus immediately reversed Pertinax's monetary reforms by devaluing the Roman currency to near pre-Pertinax levels. Because Julianus bought his position rather than acquiring it conventionally through succession or conquest, he was a deeply unpopular emperor. When Julianus appeared in public, he frequently was greeted with groans and shouts of “robber and parricide." Once, a mob even obstructed his progress to the Capitol by pelting him with large stones. When news of the public anger in Rome spread across the Empire, three influential generals, Pescennius Niger in Syria, Septimius Severus in Pannonia, and Clodius Albinus in Britain, each able to muster three legions, rebelled. They refused to accept Julianus' authority as emperor and instead declared themselves emperor. Julianus declared Severus a public enemy because he was the nearest of the three to Rome, making him the most dangerous foe. Julianus sent senators to persuade Severus' legionaries to abandon him, a new general was nominated to replace him, and a centurion dispatched to take Severus' life.


title: Didius Julianus

text: The Praetorian Guard had rarely fought in field battles, so Julianus marched them into the Campus Martius and drilled the guard in the construction of fortifications and field works. Despite this training, the Praetorian Guard was still undertrained compared to the field legionaries of Severus. Severus first secured the support of Albinus, declaring him Caesar, and then seized Ravenna and its fleet. Severus killed Tullius Crispinus, the Praetorian prefect, who was sent to negotiate with Severus and slow his march on Rome and won over to his cause the ambassadors sent to turn his troops. Cassius Dio maintained that the Praetorian Guard tried to fight back, but were crushed, while modern historians believe that the Praetorian Guard simply abandoned Julianus, deserting "en masse".


title: Didius Julianus

text: Julianus attempted to negotiate with Severus, offering to share the empire with his rival, but Severus ignored these overtures and pressed forward. As he marched, more and more cities in Italy supported his claim to the throne. The remnants of the Praetorian Guard received pardons from Severus in exchange for surrendering the actual murderers of Pertinax. After seizing the ringleaders and killing them, the soldiers reported what they had done to Marcus Silius Messala, the consul, who summoned the senate to inform them of the proceedings. The Senate passed a motion proclaiming Severus emperor, awarded divine honours to Pertinax, and sentenced Julianus to death. Julianus was deserted by all except one of the prefects and his son-in-law, Cornelius Repentinus.


title: Didius Julianus

text: Julianus was killed in the palace by a soldier on 2 June 193 AD, after a mere 66 days of ruling. According to the contemporary Roman historian Cassius Dio, Julianus' last words were: “But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed?” His body was given to his wife and daughter, who buried it in his great-grandfather's tomb by the fifth milestone on the Via Labicana. The Senate passed a "damnatio memoriae" motion to condemn Julianus and his legacy. Severus dismissed the Praetorian Guard and executed the soldiers who had killed Pertinax, the previous emperor.


title: Didius Julianus

text: Julianus repelled invasions by the Chatti and the Chauci, both of which helped protect Rome's border provinces. In the long run, the two tribes he repelled were but the harbingers of far larger Germanic migrations that would only truly finish in the sixth century AD. As emperor, Didius Julianus was unable to pass any major policy reforms in his short reign other than currency devaluation. While the currency devaluation was comparatively minor, he restarted the trend of devaluing the Roman currency which had abated under Pertinax's reign. The trend he started, which would continue under the Severan dynasty on a far larger scale, destroyed confidence in Rome's currency, led to rampant hyperinflation, and caused widespread economic upheaval. Moreover, his blatant purchase of the throne shattered any illusions of normalcy in the Roman Empire.


title: Didius Julianus

text: In the movie "The Fall of The Roman Empire", Julianus is played by Eric Porter and depicted as a scheming henchman of Commodus. At the end of the movie, Julianus and Pescennius Niger, played by Douglas Wilmer, another crony of Commodus, compete against each other in the auction for the throne of Rome.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Pararescuemen (also known as PJs) are United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Combat Command (ACC) operators tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in humanitarian and combat environments. These special operations units are also used to support NASA missions and have been used to recover astronauts after water landings. They are attached to other special operations units from all branches to conduct other operations as appropriate. Of the roughly 200 Air Force Cross recipients, only 24 are enlisted rank, of which 12 are Pararescuemen. Part of the Air Force Special Operations community and long an enlisted preserve, the Pararescue service expanded to include Combat Rescue Officers early in the 21st century.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: As early as 1922, there was a recognized need for trained personnel to go to remote sites to rescue airmen. In that year, Army Medical Corps doctor Colonel Albert E. Truby predicted that "airplane ambulances" would be used to take medical personnel to crashes and to return victims to medical facilities for treatment. However, it was another two decades before technology and necessity helped to create what would eventually become Air Force Pararescue.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Even so, there were developments in critical technologies. In 1940, two United States Forest Service Smokejumpers, Earl Cooley and Rufus Robinson, showed that parachutists could be placed very accurately onto the ground using the newly invented 'steerable parachute'. These parachutes, and the techniques smokejumpers used with them, were completely different from those used by Army airborne units. It was in that year that Dr. (Captain) Leo P. Martin was trained by the U.S. Forest Service Smokejumper Parachute Training Center in Seeley Lake, Montana as the first 'para-doctor'.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: During the first months after America's entry into the war, there was very little need for air rescue. As the war progressed, a U.S. strategic bombing campaign was launched, and air rescue began to play a key role.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Rescue units were formed around the globe under the operational control of local commanders. While training, techniques and equipment varied, one rule was constant: "Rescue forces must presume survivors in each crash until proved otherwise."


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Search and rescue of downed aviators in the continental United States fell primarily to the Civil Air Patrol, a civilian aviation group under the command of the Army Air Corps. The CAP would usually send in ground crews after locating a crash site; however, they would sometimes land small aircraft and they did experiment with parachute rescue teams.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: With Canada's entry into WWII in 1939, former Canadian fighter ace Wop May was put in charge of training operations and took over command at the No 2 Air Observer School in Edmonton, Alberta. Edmonton was one of the common stops for A-20 Boston, B-26 Marauder and especially B-25 Mitchell bombers being flown to the Soviet Union as part of the lend-lease program. When these aircraft went down, typically due to mechanical or navigational problems, the crew often survived only to die attempting to make it out of the bush. May's school was often asked to supply aircraft to search for downed planes, but even when one was spotted there was often little they could do to help. May decided to address this problem.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: In early 1942 May asked for volunteers from his civilian servicing crew, and about a dozen agreed to join. With basically no equipment, the instruction consisted of "jump and pull" and windage was calculated by throwing an Eaton's catalogue out the door. Early operations were comical, but in early 1943 May sent two volunteers, Owen Hargreaves and Scotty Thompson to the smoke jumpers school in Missoula, Montana to be trained by the U.S. Forest Service. After six weeks they returned home with borrowed steerable equipment to train two other volunteers, Wilfred Rivet and Laurie Poulsom. Soon the unit was conducting operational jumps, and by 1944 May's persistence had paid off and an official para-rescue training program started. For his work, May was awarded a Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm in 1947 by the USAAF.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: In the European Theater, there was very little opportunity for ground rescue. Most flights were over enemy-occupied territory, where a landing meant immediate capture. In the UK area of the European Theatre, the British military was at the time creating its own Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service which would be based largely on civilian mountain rescue doctrine. The RAFMRS rescued many American aircrew, or recovered remains, from USAF crashes over its UK territory. As crashes during over-water flights created a great many casualties, the Eighth Air Force initiated a 'sea rescue' group. From its creation in 1943 until the end of the war, the recovery rate of aircrews downed at sea rose from less than five percent to over forty percent.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: In the vast reaches of the Pacific Theater, a plane crash meant almost certain death from exposure to the elements. The Army formed several squadrons in theater specifically to aid and rescue downed flyers—both at sea and on islands—with great success.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: The China Burma India Theater (CBI) was the birthplace of what would eventually become pararescue. Here was a unique combination of long overland flights through territory that was loosely held by the enemy and survivable. Dominating the flying in the CBI was 'The Hump' route: cargo flights that left India carrying thousands of tons of vital war supplies had to cross the spine of the Himalayas to reach their destinations in China. Every day thousands of flight crews and their passengers risked their lives making this passage in C-46 and C-47 aircraft. Many of these flights never arrived at their destinations due to mechanical problems, weather and mistakes. Crews forced to bail out or crash land faced weeks of hardship in tracing a path back to civilization, enduring harsh weather, little food, and the injuries they sustained during the crashes.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Capt. John L. "Blackie" Porter—a former stunt pilot—is credited with commanding the first organized air rescue unit in the theater. Known as "Blackie's Gang" and flying out of Chabua, India, they were equipped with two C-47 aircraft. One of their first rescue missions was the recovery of twenty people who had bailed out of a stricken C-46 in August 1943 in the Naga area of Burma; an area that contained not just Japanese troops, but tribes of head hunters as well. Among the twenty was CBS reporter Eric Sevareid. The men were located and supplies were dropped to them. The wing flight surgeon, Lt. Col. Don Flickinger, and two combat surgical technicians, Sgt. Richard S. Passey and Cpl. William G. MacKenzie, parachuted from the search planes to assist and care for the injured. At the same time, a ground team was sent to their location and all twenty walked to safety.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Although parachute rescues were not officially authorized at the time, this is considered by PJs to be the birth of Air Force pararescue. Eric Sevareid said of his rescuers: "Gallant is a precious word: they deserve it". A few short months later, Capt. Porter was killed on a rescue mission when his B-25 was shot down.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: In 1944, General William H. Tunner took command of Air Transport Command operations in CBI. Declaring the rescue organization to be a 'cowboy operation', he appointed Maj. Donald C. Pricer commander of the 1352nd Army Air Force Base Unit and assigned him several aircraft for the mission. In addition to fixed-wing aircraft, early helicopters were deployed to the CBI for use in rescue, marking the start of a long association between rotary-wing aircraft and air rescue.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Recognizing the need for a unified organization to perform search and rescue, the Army Air Force formed the Air Rescue Service (ARS). Officially established on 29 May 1946, the ARS was charged with saving the lives of aircrews who were involved in aircraft disasters, accidents, crash landings, ditchings or abandonments occurring away from an air base, and with being world-deployable to support far-flung air operations.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: In the area around an air base, the air base commander had search and rescue jurisdiction through the Local Base Rescue (LBR) helicopter units. However, these were limited to a radius around the base due to the range and payload limitations of the aircraft. In order to reach beyond this limitation, Pararescue teams were authorized on 1 July 1947, with the first teams to be ready for fielding in November. Each team was to be composed of a Para-doctor and four Pararescue technicians trained in medicine, survival, rescue and tactics. Pararescue was given the mission of rescuing crews lost on long-range bomber and transport missions and to support other agencies when aerial rescue was requested.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: A mission earlier in 1947 was the final impetus for the formal creation of Air Force Pararescue. In May, Dr. (Capt) Pope B. 'Doc' Holliday parachuted out of an OA-10 Catalina into the Nicaraguan jungle to aid a crewmember who had parachuted from a crippled B-17 Flying Fortress. His actions earned him the Bronze Star and made him another of Pararescue's early legends.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Shortly after Pararescue teams were authorized, the 5th Rescue Squadron conducted the first Pararescue and Survival School at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. The core of instructors were experienced officers and enlisted men who were recruited from all branches of service. The commandant of that first school was pilot 1st Lieutenant Perry C. Emmons, who had been assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. At the close of the war, Emmons and six sergeants flew prisoners of war out of Thailand, earning his group the nickname "Perry and the Pirates", after the popular comic strip "Terry and the Pirates". After the war, Emmons completed Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, becoming only the second jump-qualified Air Force pilot.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: In late 1947, the crash of the B-29 "Clobbered Turkey" in Alaska brought home the need for specialized, well-trained Pararescuemen. On 21 December, the "Clobbered Turkey" hit a mountain and when the wreck was spotted on the 27th, Medical Corps 1st Lieutenant Albert C. Kinney, First Sergeant Santhell A. London, premier Army Air Forces cold weather expert and T-5 Leon J. Casey—none of whom were trained Pararescuemen—volunteered to jump onto the crash site, located 95 miles north of Nome. The team encountered poor visibility, extreme temperatures and high winds on the site and as a result, all three died. Casey's body was found from the crash site, swept there by the surface winds. Two members of the crew of the "Clobbered Turkey" who set out to seek assistance also died a few miles from the site. When civilian bush pilots William Munz and Frank Whaley finally arrived at the crash site two days later, they found that the remaining six members of the crew—who had stayed with the aircraft—had all survived. Dr. Kinney's body was not located until July of the next year.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: In 1949, due to a shortage of available doctors, Medical Service Corps officers replaced Para-doctors on the teams, receiving the same training as the enlisted Pararescuemen. One of the first of these officers was John C. Shumate, a pharmacist, who was appointed commandant of the Pararescue and Survival School.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: At this time the Air Rescue Specialist Course was created at the School of Aviation Medicine, Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama. Designed to teach Pararescuemen the skills needed to determine the nature and extent of injuries and to administer treatment, the course was taught by Medical Corps officers with previous Pararescue experience, including: Dr. Pope B.'Doc' Holliday, Dr. Rufus Hessberg, Dr. Hamilton Blackshear, Dr. Randal W. Briggs and Dr. Burt Rowan.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: As Pararescue grew, PJ teams were assigned to every Air Rescue Service squadron to provide global coverage. By 1950, the unification of all the formerly independent Air Rescue Squadrons under the umbrella of the Air Rescue Service was complete.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: In 1950, North Korea attacked across the 38th parallel and began the Korean War. This was an opportunity for Air Rescue to put training into practice and to develop theories into policies. One of the key new concepts was rescue of stranded personnel from behind enemy lines. This, along with evacuating critically wounded men from aid stations close to the front, were Air Rescue's primary missions.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Pararescuemen were a normal part of Air Rescue crews for these missions. Their medical and tactical skills made them invaluable for evacuation and rescue missions of this type.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Pararescuemen were often called upon to leave the helicopters that carried them in order to assist the personnel they were sent to rescue. This might call for an extended stay behind enemy lines and overland travel of several miles. The longest of these 'Lone Wolf' missions lasted seventy-two hours.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: By the end of the war in 1953, Air Rescue had evacuated over eight thousand critical casualties and rescued nearly a thousand men from behind enemy lines.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: The Vietnam War was a pivotal conflict for the Pararescue teams. The Air Force's scope of operations became so large that demand for Pararescue teams expanded as well. The use of helicopters caused new tactics utilizing the speed, distance, and support they could provide. Rescue "packages" were created utilizing FACs (Forward Air Controllers), rescue escorts (such as AH-1 Cobras or A-1 Sandys), protective fighter CAP (Combat Air Patrol), HC-130 "King" Hercules for Rescue Mission Coordination and helicopter refueling, and the HH-3 Jolly Green Giant, HH-43 Huskie, and HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant helicopters to provide fast rescue for pilots shot down far behind enemy lines. An elite corps of USAF Firefighters, Airborne Rescuemen/Firefighters, were part of these rescue operations. Pararescue personnel were part of these packages to provide medical assistance for injured aircrew as well as the ability to patrol for missing aircrew that might have been unconscious or dead.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Pararescue team members would be inserted to conduct LSO (Limited Surface Operations) searches while the escorts maintained an aggressive patrol to provide instantaneous support. Sometimes they would be inserted to search for personnel who were being forced to escape and evade; in such cases the mission might last for days. The Pararescue teams racked up an impressive record; during the conflict only 19 Airmen were awarded the Air Force Cross. Ten of those were awarded to Pararescuemen.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Pararescuemen have continued to play an integral part in the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror and beyond. Deploying with other Special Operations Forces (SOF) teams, Pararescuemen continue to fight and save lives on the battlefield.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: The process of becoming a "PJ" is known informally as "Superman School". Almost two years long, it's among the longest special operations training courses in the world. It also has one of the highest training attrition rates in the entire U.S. special operations community, at around 80%.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Pararescue trainees are first required to pass the Special Warfare Preparatory Course and Special Warfare Assessment and Selection at Lackland AFB (replacing the previous Pararescue Indoctrination Course). Following that is a long string of courses including Combat Dive School, Army Airborne, National Registry for Paramedic, Survival (SERE), and Military Free-fall Parachutist. Upon completing the aforementioned, a pararescue trainee is required to then complete the Pararescue Apprentice Course, which combines all the prior skills and adds a few more. Once a Pararescueman has completed the pipeline, he is assigned to a Rescue or Special Tactics team as per the needs of the Air Force. Graduates assigned to Rescue Squadrons will receive on-the-job operational upgrade training. Graduates assigned to Special Tactics Squadrons attend portions of Advanced Skills Training at the Special Tactics Training Squadron along with Air Force Combat Controllers in order to complete most of their operational upgrade training.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: This course is designed to give candidates the best possible chance of getting through selection. They are coached in collegiate-level strength/conditioning, running, swimming, nutrition, physical therapy, and other specialties. This course is currently only for Non-Prior Service Airmen, while Prior Service Airmen attend a condensed 2-week course.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: — Indoctrination Course (currently A&S) Training Gear is essentially made up of a high volume face mask, a silicone snorkel, rocket fins and booties. The mask and snorkel are key throughout training, being used in water confidence training such as water inserted into the mask throughout the training, simulating the effect of being underwater regardless of whether submerged or not. Mask and snorkel recovery is a key portion that is tested on, in which the trainee has to recover the mask and snorkel from the deep end of the pool, "clearing" the mask of water while still submerged and "clearing" the snorkel of water as well. These two can be referred to as key training tools. Items such as rope and booties can be used to further increase the intensity of water confidence training.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: This is the actual selection course, where aspiring PJs will learn water confidence techniques, rehabilitation, physical conditioning, running, and nutrition, among other vital skills. A&S is divided into 2 segments: Field Phase and Selection Phase;


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Field Phase (2.5 weeks): Time is spent in the field, sleeping in makeshift lodging in cots with sleeping bags. Pool work consisting of surface swimming, water confidence, running, rucking (walking with a loaded backpack), grass & guerrilla drills, calisthenics, and extended training days. Selection Phase (1.5 weeks): Candidates will be administered tests, surveys, critiques, and interviews. Instructors will compile all relevant information and select only those candidates that meet the required standards.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: The course is extremely demanding, candidates are pushed to their physical and mental limits, with an attrition rate of about 75 percent.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Students learn the basic parachuting skills required to infiltrate an objective area by static line airdrop. This course includes ground operations week, tower week, and "jump week" when participants make five parachute jumps. Personnel who complete this training are awarded the basic parachutist rating and are allowed to wear the Parachutist Badge.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: The course is divided into four blocks of instruction: (1) Diving Theory, (2) Infiltration/Exfiltration Methods, (3) Open Circuit Diving Operations, and (4) Closed Circuit Diving Operations. The primary focus of AFCDC is to develop Pararescuemen/Combat Rescue Officers and Combat Controller/Special Tactics Officers into competent, capable and safe combat divers/swimmers. The course provides commanders with divers/swimmers capable of undertaking personnel recovery and special operations waterborne missions. AFCDC provides diver training through classroom instruction, extensive physical training, surface and sub-surface water confidence pool exercises, pool familiarization dives, day/night tactical open water surface/sub-surface infiltration swims, open/closed circuit diving procedures and underwater search and recovery procedures. The session culminates with a waterborne field training exercise.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: This course instructs free fall parachuting (HALO) using a high performance parafoil. The course provides wind tunnel training, in-air instruction focusing on student stability, aerial maneuvers, air sense and parachute opening procedures. Each student undertakes a minimum of 30 free fall jumps including two day and two night jumps with supplemental oxygen, rucksack and load-bearing equipment.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: This course teaches basic survival techniques for remote areas using minimal equipment. This includes instruction of principles, procedures, equipment and techniques that help individuals to survive, regardless of climatic conditions or unfriendly environments, and return home. Also includes Underwater Egress Training (1 day) at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, this course teaches how to safely escape from an aircraft that has landed in the water. Instruction includes principles, procedures, and techniques necessary to escape a sinking aircraft.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: This course teaches how to manage trauma patients prior to evacuation and provide emergency medical treatment. Phase I is seven weeks of emergency medical technician basic (EMT-B) training. Phase II (EMT-P) lasts 30 weeks and provides advanced medical training and instruction in minor field surgery, pharmacology, combat trauma management, advanced airway management, and military evacuation procedures. Graduates of the course are awarded National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians-Paramedic (NREMT-P) certification.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: This is the culmination of approximately two years of pararescue training. This course includes field medical care and tactics, mountaineering, shooting, combat tactics, advanced parachuting, and helicopter insertion/extraction qualifications. Upon successful completion of this course, each graduate is awarded the maroon beret and qualifies airmen as pararescue recovery specialists for assignment to any Pararescue unit worldwide.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: After the new PJ arrives at their first unit, training continues for another 450 days. This is called a progression tour. An instructor will be with the new PJ at all times until they've completed this training. Much of it covers the same skills learned during initial "pipeline" training but to a higher proficiency level. This training will qualify the new PJ to work as an element leader, in charge of a two-person PJ team on a helicopter.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: PJs will also attend medical refresher courses to keep them current as National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians. PJs will experience 2-week hospital internships in the emergency department, labor and delivery, surgical intensive care, pediatric emergency department, operating room, and a 2-week ambulance rotation with an assignment to an Advanced Life Support EMS unit responsible for responding to a variety of 911 emergency calls.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Since the 1950s, Air Force Pararescueman have provided training and mentorship for Civil Air Patrol cadets. This was formalized in 1977 with the introduction of Pararescue Orientation Course (PJOC) at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. PJOC was later taught at Fort Knox, Kentucky and George Washington National Forest, Virginia. The course teaches CAP cadets fundamental survival and rescue skills such as shelter building, land navigation, and rock climbing. Advanced Pararescue Orientation Course (APJOC) began in the 1980s and was taught only at Kirtland AFB. In 2003, both programs were cancelled. PJOC returned in 2004, but APJOC did not see its return until 2008 when the course was moved to Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. APJOC builds upon the skills learned at PJOC and exposes cadets to life in an operational Pararescue or Special Tactics Squadron. The course culminates with a Combat Rescue Training Exercise. During APJOC, both PJOC and APJOC are Civil Air Patrol National Cadet Special Activities provided by United States Air Force Pararescue.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: Originally titled "The Code of the Air Rescueman", it was penned by the first commander of the Air Rescue Service, (then) Lieutenant Colonel Richard T. Kight and is also still used by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC).


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: This tradition arose during the Vietnam War, at which time the most commonly used USAF helicopter was the CH-3E, nicknamed the Jolly Green Giant due to its enormous size and olive drab exterior. The tradition came about when pilots, navigators, enlisted aircrew, or other military personnel were in need of rescue. After these personnel were rescued, they would proceed to receive the temporary ink-stamped "tattoo" of the green feet on their buttocks due to the fact that the Para Jumpers "saved their ass."


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: The term "Para Jumper" is a retronym of the initials "PJ" which represent the Military Duty Identifiers; P =Parachutist and J= Diver, that were used on an Air Force Form 5 (Aircrew Flight Log) to identify anyone who is on board in order to jump from the aircraft. Pararescuemen originally had no "in-flight" duties and were listed only as "PJ" on the Form 5. The pararescue position eventually grew to include duties as an aerial gunner and scanner on rotary wing aircraft, a duty now performed by aerial gunners. Currently, aircrew qualified Pararescuemen are recorded using aircrew position identifier "J" ("Pararescue Member") on the AFTO form 781.


title: United States Air Force Pararescue

text: The maroon beret worn by Pararescuemen and Combat Rescue Officers was authorized by HQ USAF in 1966 and is the second beret to be authorized for universal wear, after the US Army Special Forces Beret. The beret symbolizes the blood sacrificed by fellow Pararescuemen and their devotion to duty by aiding others in distress.