Water discovered on an extra solar planet

[The Outsider]

The first discovery of water(actually water vapor because the planet is too close to the host star for water to exist in liquid form) on an extra solar planet was published yesterday. The planet is a gaseous giant like Jupiter and not a rocky entity like Earth. It is a pretty significant discovery and with better telescopes to go into orbit over the next decade there is a good chance of discovering water on planets in the habitable zone. Here is a good account of the discovery :

A scorching-hot gas planet beyond our solar system is steaming up with water vapor, according to new observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The planet, called HD 189733b, swelters as it zips closely around its star every two days or so. Astronomers had predicted that planets of this class, termed "hot Jupiters," would contain water vapor in their atmospheres. Yet finding solid evidence for this has been slippery. These latest data are the most convincing yet that hot Jupiters are "wet." "We're thrilled to have identified clear signs of water on a planet that is trillions of miles away," said Giovanna Tinetti, a European Space Agency fellow at the Institute d'Astrophysique de Paris in France. " Tinetti is lead author of a paper on HD 189733b appearing today in Nature. Although water is an essential ingredient to life as we know it, wet hot Jupiters are not likely to harbor any creatures. Previous measurements from Spitzer indicate that HD 189733b is a fiery 1,000 Kelvin (1,340 degrees Fahrenheit) on average. Ultimately, astronomers hope to use instruments like those on Spitzer to find water on rocky, habitable planets like Earth. "Finding water on this planet implies that other planets in the universe, possibly even rocky ones, could also have water," said co-author Sean Carey of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "I'm excited to tell my nephews and niece about the discovery."

HD 189733b cannot be viewed directly from Earth. Instead, astronomers study its atmosphere by observing the planet as it transits, or passes in front of, its host star. Credit: Spaceref

The new findings are part of a brand new field of science investigating the climate on exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. Such faraway planets cannot be seen directly; however, in the past few years, astronomers have begun to glean information about their atmospheres by observing a subset of hot Jupiters that transit, or pass in front of, their stars as seen from Earth. Earlier this year, Spitzer became the first telescope to analyze, or break apart, the light from two transiting hot Jupiters, HD 189733b and HD 209458b. One of its instruments, called a spectrometer, observed the planets as they dipped behind their stars in what is called the secondary eclipse. This led to the first-ever "fingerprint," or spectrum, of an exoplanet's light. Yet, the results came up "dry," probably because the structure of these planets' atmospheres makes finding water with this method difficult. Later, a team of astronomers found hints of water in HD 209458b by analyzing visible-light data taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble data were captured as the planet crossed in front of the star, an event called the primary eclipse. Now, Tinetti and her team have captured the best evidence yet for wet, hot Jupiters by watching HD 189733b's primary eclipse in infrared light with Spitzer. In this method, changes in infrared light from the star are measured as the planet slips by, filtering starlight through its outer atmosphere. The astronomers observed the eclipse with Spitzer's infrared array camera at three different infrared wavelengths and noticed that for each wavelength a different amount of light was absorbed by the planet. The pattern by which this absorption varies with wavelength matches that created by water. "Water is the only molecule that can explain that behavior," said Tinetti. "Observing primary eclipses in infrared light is the best way to search for this molecule in exoplanets."

Spitzer Space Telescope, the fourth and final element in NASA's family of Great Observatories. Credit: Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., 2003

The water on HD 189733b is too hot to condense into clouds; however, previous observations of the planet from Spitzer and other ground and space-based telescopes suggest that it might have dry clouds, along with high winds and a hot, sun-facing side that is warmer than its dark side. HD 189733b is located 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. Other authors of the Nature paper include Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Jean-Phillippe Beaulieu, David Sing and Nicole Allard of the Institute d'Astrophysique de Paris: Mao-Chang Liang of Caltech and the Academia Sinica, Taiwan; Yuk Yung of Caltech; Robert J. Barber and Jonathan Tennyson of University College London in England; Ignasi Ribas of the Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Spain; Gilda E. Ballester of the University of Arizona, Tucson; and Franck Selsis of the Ecole Normale Superrieure, France. For graphics related to this research and more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer.

[Rajiv]

Fascinating Stuff How to they pick the planet name/number?

[yoda]

why is there an obsession with finding water outside earth? if we are after life outside earth, it could possibly thrive even without water. if there is water, is it mandatory that there has to be life?

[The Outsider]

How to they pick the planet name/number?

The name of the star followed b,c,d etc. in the order they are discovered. So in this case, , HD 189733b, would have been the first discovered planet of the system with the parent star's name, HD 189733.

[The Outsider]

why is there an obsession with finding water outside earth? if we are after life outside earth' date=' it could possibly thrive even without water. if there is water, is it mandatory that there has to be life?[/quote'] No, but life as we know it can exist only in the presence of water. Sure, there might be life which does not require water but one step at a time.

[Ram]

why is there an obsession with finding water outside earth? if we are after life outside earth' date=' it could possibly thrive even without water. if there is water, is it mandatory that there has to be life?[/quote'] I echo similar sentiments. In our search for extra-terrestrial life , we always search for planets that have earth-like conditions ( Water , mild temperatures, oxygen/Carbon ). But , what if there is life that can sustain in hostile environment ? What if they take in Nitrogen to breathe ? What if they dont require water at all ?

[kumble_rocks]

Yaawwwn at the discovery. It's deja vu all over again . Heck ,we found water/ice/vapor in Mars, one of the satellite of Jupiter and yada yada yada .

[Ram]

Yaawwwn at the discovery. It's deja vu all over again . Heck ' date='we found water/ice/vapor in Mars, one of the satellite of Jupiter and yada yada yada .[/quote'] Obv KR has abs no interest in this ! :haha:

[kumble_rocks]

Obv KR has abs no interest in this ! :haha:

Scotch does that to you !:haha::haha:

[Ram]

Scotch does that to you !:haha::haha:

:hysterical::hysterical:.. that was a good one !

[MundaPakistani]

Temperature is off course the key here..in this planet's case the temperature is too high and in Mars and Europa's case its too cold how ever in Europa there is outside chance that we might find something under the sheet of ice that covers the entire moon.

[Gaurav]

I don't fear death but what makes me sad about dying is that I won't be able to experience all the future discoveries and inventions :embaressed_smile: I better go and look for fountain of youth...actually I better unload my fountain as my bladder is full :P

[THX_1138]

why is there an obsession with finding water outside earth? if we are after life outside earth' date=' it could possibly thrive even without water. if there is water, is it mandatory that there has to be life?[/quote'] no! life cannot exist, atleast carbon or for that fact silicon (if such exists at all) without liquid water. period.

[THX_1138]

Yaawwwn at the discovery. It's deja vu all over again . Heck ' date='we found water/ice/vapor in Mars, one of the satellite of Jupiter and yada yada yada .[/quote'] no water on mars... its signs of water that too geological. most evidence points to water last flowing over 20 million years ago. there is however conjecture of water still being present under the surface. none the less, habitation of mars can never happen. the poor planet has no atmosphere that can sustain necessary gases and is very susceptible to solar winds and corona blasts. all thanks to a non existent magnetic field. and for europa, there is abundant ice on it, but does it exist in water state below the ice (quite likely) but exploring that moon, especially under the ice is still over 10 years away. we are still designing an underwater autonomous exploration vehicle and then would have to deal with the delievry system. thats some 10 years more in the making too.

[CC1981]

no! life cannot exist' date=' atleast carbon or for that fact silicon (if such exists at all) without liquid water. period.[/quote'] Thats an incorrect claim. There exists life on earth ( deep sea thermal vents) where bacterial/microbial life thrives in the absence of water and oxygen- purely sulphur & nitrous oxide based life-forms.

[MundaPakistani]

no water on mars... its signs of water that too geological. most evidence points to water last flowing over 20 million years ago. there is however conjecture of water still being present under the surface. none the less, habitation of mars can never happen. the poor planet has no atmosphere that can sustain necessary gases and is very susceptible to solar winds and corona blasts. all thanks to a non existent magnetic field. and for europa, there is abundant ice on it, but does it exist in water state below the ice (quite likely) but exploring that moon, especially under the ice is still over 10 years away. we are still designing an underwater autonomous exploration vehicle and then would have to deal with the delievry system. thats some 10 years more in the making too.

1- In the last 8-10 years they have observed new tracks of water which suggest that water STILL flows on the surface of mars but it exists in minuscule amount 2- The conditions at Europa aren't too dissimilar to some place in Antarctica so there is definitely a chance that we can find life there

[gorah_pindu]

I don't fear death but what makes me sad about dying is that I won't be able to experience all the future discoveries and inventions :embaressed_smile: I better go and look for fountain of youth...actually I better unload my fountain as my bladder is full :P

Same here. It gonna suck when they discover immortality 2 years after we die.

[CC1981]

wouldn't want to be immortal in the first place...a species shouldnt graduate to immortality unless it loses the ability to reproduce...otherwise, its time for pink goo...

[The Outsider]

Thats an incorrect claim. There exists life on earth ( deep sea thermal vents) where bacterial/microbial life thrives in the absence of water and oxygen- purely sulphur & nitrous oxide based life-forms.

All known life on earth is carbon based even the bacteria you are referring to hydrothermal vents. They derive their energy from Sulphur but are still carbon based life forms.

1- In the last 8-10 years they have observed new tracks of water which suggest that water STILL flows on the surface of mars but it exists in minuscule amount

True, MP. There was some photographic evidence of deposits which were likely made by water though it wasn't a 100% confirmation.

[MundaPakistani]

All known life on earth is carbon based even the bacteria you are referring to hydrothermal vents. They derive their energy from Sulphur but are still carbon based life forms. True, MP. There was some photographic evidence of deposits which were likely made by water though it wasn't a 100% confirmation.

yeah there was a photograph of a specific spot in 1999 and then again in 01 and they found tracks of water that weren't there in 1999. Are they still in doubt because the tracks might have been caused the flow of Lava or is there some other reason?