NASA'S Spitzer Finds Water Vapor on Hot, Alien Planet

[voyagerwsh]

...The discovery (water vapor) was made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which possesses a particularly keen ability to study nearby stars and their exoplanets. HD 189733b is located 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula...<br /><br />"Water is the quintessence of life as we know it," says Yuk Yung, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology and one of the authors of a paper appearing in this week's journal Nature. "It is exciting to find that it is as abundant in another solar system as it is in ours."<br /><br /><br />Coauthor, Mao-Chang Liang of Caltech and the Research Center for Environmental Changes in Taiwan said, "The discovery of water is the key to the discovery of alien life." --<br /><br />http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13014.html<br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Water which is one of the most important ingredients for life, not only is abubdent in our solar system. Now we have the evidence that it also exists in other exosolar system which will make the exciting finding for life elsewhere outside our own.<br /><br /><br />

 

[SpeedFreek]

This is a nice discovery, but when I see reports like these I always find myself thinking the same thing - "Great! Another on ticked off the list. Another place we have actually found that seems to show how "normal" our own solar system is".<br /><br />Will we find water on other planets in this solar system?<br />Will we find planets around other stars?<br />Will we find rocky planets around other stars?<br />Will we find water on planets around other stars?<br /><br />We seem to continually need to prove what seems obvious - that own our solar system is distinctly <i>average</i> and we will find more of the same when we look elsewhere.<br /><br />This post may seem like a bit of a whinge, but that is not my intention. I realise that we have to do this science, it's just that I'm not at all surprised by these revelations! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />I have always held the opinion that there is no reason why life would be restricted only to our own solar system. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[nrrusher]

I personally believe that the accidental development of life is dependent on SO MANY FACTORS WORKING PERFECTLY TOGETHER as to be practically impossible. However, I do agree with your sentiment. It is like Columbus being surprised to find trees in the new world. <br /><br />Although I like to see we are looking into stuff like this, I wish it was paralleled by a more intensive drive to DEVELOP the solar system we find ourselves in. I feel like space is becoming that one special room with all the fancy furniture that you could only look into, but were never allowed to go in and touch.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

<font color="yellow"> I have always held the opinion that there is no reason why life would be restricted only to our own solar system. </font><br /><br />I don't think it is restricted to just this rock in this Solar System. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[qso1]

Excellent points...I call these discoveries "Expected conditions". <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

nrrusher:<br />I personally believe that the accidental development of life is dependent on SO MANY FACTORS WORKING PERFECTLY TOGETHER as to be practically impossible.<br /><br />Me:<br />I agree. I've posted several times on the rarity of advanced life. I make the distinction of advanced life because I tend to think we are going to find microbiological activity fairly common. I even went so far as to suggest interstellar travelling human level intelligences as being less than one per galaxy. Even if they would be less than one per a hundred galaxies...when one considers the number of galaxies, Interstellar capable HLI beings suddenly become common.<br /><br />For me, this is an expected condition that simply has not been proven. It is still possible however, that we are alone where ETIs are concerned. Extremely unlikely but still possible and a possibility we won't ever be able to prove. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>