Pangloss Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Methane spotted in a planetary atmosphere in a system in Vulpecula. It's not an Earth-like planet but it's a promising development in the search for life outside our own ecosphere. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/science/space/20planetw.html Astronomers reported Wednesday that they had made the first detection of an organic molecule, methane, in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system and had confirmed the presence of water there, clearing the way for a bright future of inspecting the galaxy for livable planets, for the chemical stuff of life, or even for life itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecoli Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 *must resist making fart joke* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 The JPL press release on this was good. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-046 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 "The astronomers were surprised to find that the planet has more methane than predicted by conventional models for "hot Jupiters." " To paraphrase a comment I read elsewhere, astronomers must be the most-easily surprised of all the scientists. Almost every press release has them surprised at something-or-other. "Astronomers were surprised to find that extrapolating from a single data point can yield unusual results" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedarkshade Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Found that accidentally, thought it could be proper for the thread:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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