De Wit accepted the award on August 28, 2018, on behalf of the TRAPPIST-1 team at the annual award ceremony held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), for, "the outstanding scientific achievement in uncovering the nature of the TRAPPIST-1 system, revealing seven potentially habitable planets around a nearby cool red star."
In February of 2017 the team, including de Wit and colleagues from the University of Liège in Belgium, announced their discovery which marked a new record in exoplanet research. The TRAPPIST-1 system is the largest known of its kind outside our solar system, with a total of seven rocky, Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zone—the range around their host star where temperatures could potentially sustain liquid water.
The Group Achievement Award is one among the prestigious NASA Honor Awards, which are presented to a number of carefully selected individuals and groups, both Government and non-Government, who have distinguished themselves by making outstanding contributions to the Agency’s mission.