Hubble Detects Organic Molecule on an Extrasolar Planet

This Wednesday NASA will hold a media teleconference to report on the first-ever detection of the organic molecule methane in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star. Though the planet is too hot to support life as we know it, the finding demonstrates the ability to detect organic molecules spectroscopically around Earth-like planets in habitable zones around stars.

To date, planet hunters across the globe have spotted more than 240 planets beyond our solar system, but the vast majority are hot, Jupiter-sized planets that would dwarf the Earth and are almost certainly lifeless.

Astronomers may be on the brink of discovering a second Earth-like planet, a find that would add fresh impetus to the search for extraterrestrial life, according to the US journal Science. Astronomers from six major centers, including NASA, Harvard and the University of Colorado, outline how advances in technology suggest scientists are on the verge of being able to detect the presence of small, rocky planets, much like our own, around distant stars for the first time. The planets are considered the most likely habitats for extraterrestrial life.

One technique relies on observing the shift in light coming from a star as a planet swings around it. Until recently, this "radial velocity" method has only been sensitive enough to pick up planets far more massive than Earth, but improvements now make the discovery of a second Earth highly likely, said Dave Latham, a co-author on the paper at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"It could happen almost any time now. We have the technological capability to identify Earth-like planets around the smallest stars even now," he said.

An example of the advances in detecting Earth-like planets is he Gemini Observatory—a collaboration of the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, and Argentina—which is building a spectrograph on one of its largest class of telescopes. In order to perform the types of studies needed to find other Earth-mass planets, scientists would need to being studying the near infrared, rather than the green wavelengths of visible light. This new Gemini spectrograph, called the Precision Radial Velocity Spectrometer, will specifically be designed to do very high precision Doppler work in the near infrared, rather than the optical. Once that type of technology is developed, rather than finding the occasional one or two Earth-sized planets around M dwarf stars, finding more and more will be much more straightforward, thereby dispelling some of the current hype and allowing scientists to gather actual statistics about these types of systems.

NASA's mantra of "follow the water" has defined the search for extraterrestrial life on and other planets. If water is crucial for life, then the most likely sanctuaries will be planets which lie in a "habitable zone" just the right distance from a star, so that it is neither so hot that water evaporates, or so cold that it remains permanently frozen.

Dr Latham of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center said missions such as Nasa's planned Kepler space observatory, which is due to launch in early 2009, would have a high chance of finding Earth-like planets if they are out there.

"These are the biggest questions. Are there habitable abodes? Are we alone?" he said. "Put it like this. If we don't find anything, I'll have to rethink my agnosticism."

Be sure to check out the Top 10 ExoPlanets compiled by Space.com

Posted by Casey Kazan.

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NASA's discovery of the organic molocule, made with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), will be featured in the March 20 issue of the journal Nature.

http://hubblesite.org/news/2008/11

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's Web site at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
Website: http://www.hubblesite.org/

Comments

[knoxvilledaniel]

I don't know about anyone else on " THE DAILY GALAXY ", or anyone in the scientific community, but I'm beginning to think that Earth -type, extrasolar planets might not be as rare as some have believed. They might not be totally Earth - like, but they're out there. Now, whether these planets support any kind of life - it's probably not going to completely resemble terrestrial life - & whether that life will be capable of possessing a means of monitoring or exploring space for carbon - based kindred is a whole other question.

[knoxvilledaniel]

& why are the scientists so sure that Jovian - sized planets would be lifeless ? We aren't totally certain that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune in our own Solar System are devoid of life of some kind.

[wayno]

Has anyone proved that Jovian planets do not have some sort of life? No? well then, why the insistence that this is the case? Is it not possible that silica based life (as it would be more durable and slow growing) could find a home in the cloud tops of Jupiter, Saturn or even Venus, possibly living off the gas found there? In the end, the announcement that organic molecules have been found on a jovian sized planet is enough to warrant a search of our local group.