Located 600 km (373 miles) north of Santiago, in the superlatively arid Atacama Desert, is La Silla Observatory.

Spanish for The Saddle, La Silla is so-named for the geological contours of its mountaintop perch. The European Space Agency (ESO) owns and operates the multiple telescopes at the location, and they've been responsible for making numerous discoveries.

Among the recent discoveries is the TRAPPIST-1 system, located 39.6 light-years away in the Aquarius constellation. Named for the telescope located at La Silla that originally revealed it, the TRAPPIST-1 system contains 7 rocky exoplanets, with at least 3 of those in the "habitable zone" (containing liquid water).

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