Sunday, March 16, 2008

Hubble Detects Organic Molecule on an Extrasolar Planet

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 19, 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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...sounding very much like what I always assumed would be the first slow steps towards "disclosure". They start with something safe and distant and then move closer until they do the big reveal ;)

Denny