Why the 7 worlds of TRAPPIST-1 waltz in peculiar patterns

On the left, a giant orange arc emerges, rising slightly. between that, all the way right, through the middle, seven planets of varying colors and texturs.

Scientists may have finally revealed the history of the tantalizing TRAPPIST-1 system, an intricate collection of seven worlds that sit about 40 light-years away from us. These worlds, many astronomers and astrobiologists say, may offer us a promising chance of finding life outside the solar system — but they also exhibit peculiar orbital patterns.  

The newly outlined history of TRAPPIST-1 may, at last, explain how those patterns came to be.