Emily Kwong

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Thank you so much.

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will complicate the saga of the Black Death with a story of how it may have been driven by volcanoes.

What?

All right, Elsa, where do you want to start?

That's Sukrit Ranjan, the lead author of a recent study about TRAPPIST-1e published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Now, what Sukrit is saying is that we have the best chances of finding life there in the Goldilocks zone as opposed to some of these other exoplanet systems.

Well, the reason this zone is important is because it's not too hot such that water evaporates off the surface and not too cold such that the planet would be covered in ice.

Another key ingredient for life on a planet is having an atmosphere.

Drum roll.

Sadly, no.

A more in-depth investigation of TRAPPIST-1e revealed no CO2 and found that there may be no methane either.

Oh, and by the way, the study also noted that the majority of these Titan-like exoplanets called exotitans most likely lack an atmosphere entirely.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes, and to one of the most defining events of that time, the Black Death, which killed one-third to one-half of the population of Europe.