Hubble Detects Organic Molecule on an Extrasolar Planet

[Ichingcarpenter]

Source: Daily Galaxy

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.

Read more: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/03/hubble-detects.html

[aquart]

1. Mommy!

[mac2]

2. It's just lies to collect tax dollars.

Are they stealing there for space weapons? Or robbery period.

By the way...who cares? People are dying on this planet why care about other people or life on other planets? Do they want to make them part of our Empire?

When are they going to cure Aids, Cancer, the common cold?

They're watching too many space movies.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. I hope you meant to include a sarcasm icon

[shireen]

11. you're mad at Hubble?

Space exploration is wonderful. Don't you get excited about seeing close-up images of planets in our solar system, or images of galaxies when the universe was very young?

Humans, by nature, are curious. We take great joy in exploring and understanding our world and the universe. Many of the projects undertaken by NASA, like the Apollo moon landings, the probes to other planets in our solar system, and Hubble represent some of the best of humanity's accomplishments. We need to keep that positive and joyful aspect of our humanity alive and well. Along the way, many scientific discoveries inspire technological innovations that improve our society.

You need to focus your anger on the crimes, mismanagement, and greed that deny many people the opportunity to fulfill their potential as human beings.

Yes, people are dying. There are terrible problems in the world, and they must be addressed. But we cannot afford to ignore the good things that human beings are capable of accomplishing ....

[roguevalley]

21. science is good. science aimed at explaining the universe it good

all the rest is getting helped. this has such a tiny part of the budget you have to find it with a (hubble) microscope.

[mac2]

30. When there is extra money around. Right now no.

[htuttle]

37. We spend the amount they spent on this in about 3 minutes in Iraq

The pursuit of science is something we owe future generations, as past generations did the same for us. Since we've let them down in every other conceivable way, it's nearly the least we can do for them...

[mac2]

39. Send it to me.

I want to retire in the Cayman Islands next to my bundle of cash.

[PittPoliSci]

54. wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

a viable space program is a very effective way to stimulate economic growth through technological research and development. the increased demand for scientists meant many more people went to college through grant programs.

the space program isn't just stargazing, it's about building a technologically advanced society ready to handle challenges of the future.

example: computers

because of a government demand for sophisticated computing equipment for the space program, lots of research and development was piled into information technologies and as result modern computers were developed.

if there were no calls by the government for a space program, research and development would have been stifled, and modern computing technology would have evolved at a much, MUCH slower rate. the free market does not place an emphasis on r&d the way the government programs do, and that's historically accurate through any time period.

[mac2]

32. You pay for it.

[Ian David]

23. Some people were apparently INTEND to remain ignorant their whole lives. n/t

[Posteritatis]

27. It's a step up from the moon hoax dingbats, anyway.. (nt)

[mac2]

31. The ones with no homes, empty stomachs and wallets

should care about "outter space"? We have Katrina survivors still without basic needs. Our priorities are screwed up don't you think?

I'm sure that would make them happy that your intellectual needs were being met.

[Ian David]

46. That's fucking ignorant, short-sighted and leads ultimately to our extinction as a species.

I have utter contempt for that sentiment.

[Yupster]

66. I agree Ian

The first moon landing was when I was 10 years old.

I am amazed at how little we've done in space over my lifetime.

We need to eventually get humanity to other planets or we will certainly be extinct as a species.

[PittPoliSci]

55. oh give me a break.

why can't we do all of that? there is no reason why we can't help the homeless, feed the hungry, and have a space program. your argument is short-sighted and above all, NOT VERY AMBITIOUS.

[booley]

73. that's a straw man

even if we cut the space program completely, the money for New orleans or to rebuild our infrastructure still wouldn't be there.

Things like Iraq would just swallow that up as well. No matter how much money we save in one place, the cons will always say that we don't have the money and so need to cut social spending yet will somehow find the money for things they want. Because it's not the amount of money, it's what it's being spent on.

Haven't you noticed that even as cons work to cut things like medicare and head start because they say the country cant' afford them, they push for more and more money spent on weapons and wars? That would seem non-sensical.. unless cutting social spending was the purpose, not the consequence.

And the earlier poster was right in that space exploration has led to not only technologies but new industries and jobs.

[customerserviceguy]

81. Without space research

we'd have no satellites, and fewer ways of measuring global warming. Using convincing evidence of this gathered from high above the planet maybe prevents the human death toll from the next Katrina.

[niceypoo]

58. Science is a religion

Dinosaurs were dragons...

[ejbrush]

61. So, where do you think that money ends up?

I mean, the money spent on the Space Program is being spent here, on earth, in the USA for the most part. Money spent here stays here. The check the NASA cuts to the aerospace engineer every other Tuesday gets spent in the community, on every damn thing you and I spend money on. The money spent or parts goes to the employees of those companies and into their community. Money spent on building maintenance goes to janitors, money spent on food services goes to cooks and caterers and everything else. Money spent on fuel and vehicles goes to grease monkeys at the Jiffy Lube. Cripes, we spent $25 billion for Apollo, which translates to maybe $140 billion today, give or take a few billion. Did some people get rich, or get richer? Of course, that is going to happen no matter what. Get over it. Did a whole lot of people from the Program Engineers on down to the guy delivering pizza to the janitor who cleans the machine shop that manufactured valves get a bite of that pie? Damn straight they did.
Unlike the trickle-down ideas of Reagan nincompoops, money spent on large government programs does move through the community and ultimately benifit everyone. Think Apollo, think WPA, TVA, CCC, the Interstate Highway Program, etc.

[LeftHander]

4. Stinky I bet....nt

[Uncle Joe]

14. Obligatory posting of Uranus as a possibility. n/t

[LeftHander]

22. Gas Giant Planet Fartron in the Gluteus Nebula

lol...sophomoric humor...

[Peace Patriot]

5. Awesome! RIP, Carl Sagan! We're carrying on!

But I can't help but note that we have a lot of gas here, too. Bushite gas. "Blue Dog" Democrat gas. And I don't know how long Earth will be fit for human life if we have to breathe any more of it.

...nor how much more of the vast, mysterious, glorious Universe our scientists will be able to study and explore, given the economic disaster that these fuckheads have induced.

Not feeling very hopeful this morning. But, then again, if they do find sentient life elsewhere, or it finds us, the tectonic shift in human consciousness might save our planet, and our species, and all our companion species, after all. It seems very much like something that big needs to happen, to vent the political gas into space and jumpstart human progress.

[mac2]

33. Carl Sagan said humans could never live in space

because of weightlessness. Their bones would break down over time.

[Robeson]

45. Total distortion. "live in space" is completely different than space travel...

...which Sagan understood was needed for various reasons. The need for space travel is always constant, as Sagan said himself, because:

In the long run, the Sun may generate stupendous X-ray and ultraviolet outbursts: the Solar System will enter one of the vast interstellar clouds lurking nearby and the planets will darken and cool; a shower of deadly comets will come roaring out of the Oort Cloud threatening civilization on many adjacent worlds; we will recognize that a nearby star is about become supernova...
"Carl Sagan a Life" by Keay Davidson, pgs. 427-429.

[Zhade]

50. Why do you hate science? Are you mad that the Space Shuttle didn't find Jesus up there?

Seriously, WTF?

[Peace Patriot]

60. He may have been right. So what? Does that mean we don't LOOK?

And we might some day overcome the difficulties, just as we did with SEA TRAVEL.

People need something to live FOR, you know. We are inherently creative, restless beings. You ever read any studies of babies? You can feed them regularly, and change their diapers, but if you don't stimulate their minds--with tactile, visual and aural sensations--they die! They DIE! Food is not enough. Clean bottoms is not enough. We need challenges, puzzles, adventures, stories, songs, trips over the hill to the next valley, variety, great quests, and, out of these, we spin civilization.

You are like the land-lubbers, way back when, who thought those crazies building a canoe, to venture into the vasty deep, were wasting their time, and failing to do their part in the hunt. And out the canoe went on its great adventure. Maybe they found nothing. Maybe they drowned. But their children imitated them, and THEY built a better canoe. And, lo and behold, they discovered ...another country with DIFFERENT people, DIFFERENT fruit, DIFFERENT animals, but no idea how to make jewelry, and they began TRADING.

Stay home, and feed the hungry, if you wish. It's goodly work. But be glad that when a child asks you if the world is really flat, you can tell them the truth--that it isn't. And you can tell them of the intellectual and physical adventures of the people who found out the truth. And what the canoe-builders bring back from that other, DIFFERENT country, might just help you survive a crop failure, build better flood control, or introduce to the idea of the needle for sewing clothes.

[Kokonoe]

6. I wonder why

Neptune's atmosphere is 80% hydrogen and 19% helium.<38> A trace amount of methane is also present.

I might guess neptune has oil, but we already know it comes from dinosaur bones.

it seem we need to sex up science to get it past the gov. sensors.

[eppur_se_muova]

25. Very low temps. If CH4 is present, it will be liquid, as on Titan, but even colder.

There might be immense amounts of methane present lower down. Neptune probably resembles a colder Jupiter, with the less volatile components of the atmosphere frozen or condensed out. H2 and He are the *only* substances which are gases at those temps.

[shadowknows69]

7. Someone else in the universe shits!!!!

[shireen]

8. Damn! They found us.

(from http://www.elfwood.com/elfwood.pike

[mac2]

34. As I said...too many space movies.

[shireen]

42. too bad we can't pick and choose where our tax money goes.

If we could, you should have the right to withhold payments to NASA, basic science, and exploration. I think it's short-sighted, but it's your cash, do as you want.

I'd rather withhold my tax money from the bottomless pit known as the military industrial complex and bailing out banks with overpaid CEOs. That would leave plenty of money, and more, for the social programs we care about, helping our active-duty soldiers and veterans, and education. Who knows, maybe NASA and NSF could get a raise in funding too.

[benld74]

9. Hubble DOES NOT Detects A BRAIN in Bush's Head!

[Vidar]

18. That would take an elecron microscope--not standard equipment for astronomers.

[undeterred]

10. Have they detected affordable housing?

Jobs?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. Picture:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

69. Looks like Chile's getting a little full

:rofl:

[dipsydoodle]

13. Maybe someone just sneezed on the lens

:shrug:

[progressoid]

15. Bull!

That's just Satan distorting everything to trick us into believing science over Jeebus.

[kickysnana]

16. This is the people who found the Mars rocks, right? All destraction all the time.

:silly: :think: :argh: :wtf: :shrug: :rofl: :applause:

[Vidar]

17. Live long & prosper.

[MessiahRp]

19. Hubble is one thing we should never de-fund

IIRC we were talking about de-funding this thing or may have done so already. Considering all the other wastes of money in our government (the Iraq War, tax cuts for the rich, Pentagon projects like the "Gay Bomb") here's something we have actually gotten usefulness out of and only in Bush's backwards fucking world do we decide that the few things that actually work are the things we need to dismantle.

Rp

[mac2]

35. Are we looking for someone to attack earth? Just wondered why

you would think it was so important.

[MessiahRp]

53. Space Exploration is good sound science

We don't need to find alien cultures or have a War of the Worlds for it to be important. Lots of scientific advances that we have today began in the NASA program and studying other planets gives us a better scientific understanding of our own planet and the conditions surrounding our creation and possibly our demise.

So yes, it's important.

Rp

[Q3JR4]

20. This is very happy making.

In 2007 NASA's total budget was $16 million (www.nasa.gov/pdf/142458main_FY07_budget_full.pdf) In an age where the United States has spent over $500 million on a war of aggression $16 million seems like a very small price to pay for the purposes of pure research.

I'm a firm believer that one day science will save us from ourselves, then again that's the only reason I'm optimistic about humanity's chances of survival. In every other way I'd argue that we are f*cked.

Q3JR4.

On edit:
Fixed coding issues.

[INDIA]

72. Without even looking at your link, the $16 million dollar figure is definitely wrong.

The Space Shuttle's toilets probably cost around $16 million.

And $500 million? You must mean billions. At least that much. Wrong wrong wrong.

[Duer 157099]

24. Amazing technology - a telescope that detects a molecule!

I thought you needed a microscope for that, but what do I know :shrug:

(Oh! I see, it detects a *type* of molecule. I thought it detected just ONE.)

[mac2]

36. I have scientific training so I too know this is bull.

Maybe the lens is dirty?

[MrBadExample]

57. Read the article.

Then look up "spectroscopically" and get back to us.

[Solon]

68. You sir, are full of shit...

For someone who has "scientific training" you are really ignorant about science.

[eppur_se_muova]

26. Please note: "Organic" means "contains carbon", not "produced by living organisms".

This unfortunate usage causes a lot of confusion, but among chemists, and scientists in general, an "organic molecule" is one based on carbon, other than CO2, CO, or mineral carbonates. There was a time when it was thought that all molecules produced by living things were somehow 'special', with different chemistry, but we now know that's not true, other than that most molecules involved in biochemistry are carbon-containing. (The converse is not necessarily true -- there are many unnatural products, including 'plastics' which are based on carbon.). Unfortunately, this has left us with the confusing term 'organic' chemistry.

[Orsino]

29. Yeah. Any gas giant, for example, will be up to its Equator in methane...

...and not necessarily likely to harbor life.

[and-justice-for-all]

28. Smearking at the notion that life exist beyond Earth...

is arrogant and cocky.

All the necassary componets for life exist through out the Universe, it is unfathomable to think that life does not exist out there and finding it will take time, but as long as we keep looking we will find it.

Intelligent life...I bet there is at least one other Intelligent civilization in the Milky Way, at the very least. I would also wager that there is intelligent life in Andromeda, perhaps there is one or 2 intelligent civilizations per galaxy or even in places that look uninhabital actually do have some life in them.

[mac2]

38. The universe is huge so we don't know for sure.

It's like looking for a needle in a field is it not? And by the way...who cares?

[loser_user]

43. I am sorry you have ended up so bitter in the last 8 years...

You're not alone.

[mac2]

44. Bitter? No like my family always says...just sensible

and intelligent. Those who learn by their experience don't repeat them.

[gtar100]

48. You sure they're not just being nice to you so you don't go off on them?

Because you do sound a little more than bitter about the money being spent on space exploration. Seems to me your contempt would pay better dividends if you focused on the money we dump into weapons and all things military. At least science provides us with hope for climbing out of the hole we're in. It's a shame to waste your energy on tearing something down that provides both joy and utility to us when there are so many other things to choose from such as government waste, excessive CEO compensation, oil cartels, drug lords, Halliburton, military occupations, and the real welfare queens such as Queen Elizabeth and the Saudi Royal family.

Give science, research, and exploration its due. All the people that you and I want to pull up out of poverty probably have bigger dreams than their next meal. Because just surviving doesn't make life worth living. Science in all its forms provides hope, promise, and adventure for both body and mind. If it's not your cup of tea, well there are many other flavors around. But you'll never know them if you spend your time cursing the ones you don't like.

[PittPoliSci]

56. i haven't seen an intelligent comment from you in this entire thread.

just a lot of whining and nonsense.

[and-justice-for-all]

49. I do..nt

[Zhade]

51. I care.

others care.

We don't really care if you don't. We're still going to investigate.

Get over yourself.

[lumberjack_jeff]

67. It's not unfathomable at all. "Where is everybody?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

There's only one radio spectrum. There is no way that anyone with a radio antenna within 80 light years of us can miss our presence. The reverse is also true.

The drake equation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation


... is an attempt to quantify the number of intelligent civilizations in the universe. Unfortunately, if any of the variables in the equation are zero, then so is the answer.

The lesson that few of us want to accept is that this may be all there is. We may very well be it - the entirety of sentience in this universe. It leads to the conclusion that we ought to take things a little more seriously.

[Occulus]

75. All the variables in the Drake equation are equal to at least one.

There is no variable in the Drake equation that can possibly equal zero, because the one is US!

What that observation leads to depends upon our finding- or not- life off Earth of any kind. If we ever find any form of extraterrestrial life, the possibility of intelligent life off Earth is vastly increased.

Aren't we just now entering a period in which we can 'expect' some form of contact if there's another species listening? After all, in the grand scheme of things, the tech necessary to beam a signal offplanet isn't that old, from our point of view. Also, isn't it entirely possible that "someone" developed mass communication that doesn't rely upon the radio spectrum to function? I'm thinking of perhaps optical-based communication systems and computing here.

It's true that we would expect communication on the radio spectrum, but I personally think that's our hubris showing. Just because it's ubiquitous on our planet doesn't mean it's used everywhere- if there even is an "everywhere". The proverbial "somebody" might have been trying to send something to us all this time, and we just don't have the equipment necessary to "see" it.

I'm not talking about "subspace" or anything exotic/sci-fi-ish here, only about a civilization going in a completely different direction with its technology than we have.

[lumberjack_jeff]

78. Wouldn't you think, knowing what we do of biology, that Earth would have been a nice place to visit?

... perhaps for mature galactic civilizations to set up shop?

Wouldn't we expect to have found stuff in orbit? Why were Neil Armstrong's footprints the first ones?

Unless one posits that the universe is crawling with hyper-intelligent aliens intent on hiding their presence through the use of tachyon ray beams, subspace communication and the force, they face the burden of evidence. If intelligent life which develops the capability of leaving their home world is common, the galaxy should be a cacophony of extraterrestrial reality tv shows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis

I strongly recommend the book "Rare Earth" by Peter Ward. It's second only to "Shock Doctrine" as important books of this century.

[Occulus]

80. On the other hand, our sun is but one of many very average, unremarkable stars on the galactic rim.

I have very little doubt that there are intelligent lifeforms out there who are alive right now. The problem is the mind-boggling vastness of space. Absent some 'magical' technology that lets one zip from here to there in a blink, space is so very very huge that there's little chance any two intelligent species will ever come into contact with one another, even if they're looking. There's just too much, er, space, in space.

There are other issues. Dust clouds may be a curtain behind which we would see a vast interstellar civilization, but which we are completely blind to (and they to us) because nothing we or this hypothetical 'they' have can penetrate the cloud. Lacking that 'magical' transportation, there's virtually no way we or they would ever even notice each other.

I personally like Baxter's novelized thoughts on the matter. While fictional, his writing does pose several interesting ideas, one of which is space exploration driven by a need for resources and colonization (and not mere curiosity), and the other that nobody has ever lived long enough to develop that hypothetical 'magical' transport tech simply because of natural hazards, such as gamma ray bursts, star collisions, black holes, asteroid and comet collisions, etc. Any of these could spell doom to our own species, and by the time our signals on the matter ever got anywhere, and they came here, we would be long dead and gone and turned to dust, as would everything we ever built.

That said, if anyone in here doubts the possibility of intelligent life existing at this moment on another planet elsewhere in the universe, remember that the Milky Way galaxy alone contains between 200 and 400 billion stars. Meanwhile, 28 million light years away, the Sombrero galaxy plays host to several hundred billion more. There are a lot of galaxies somewhere between here and there.

It is estimated that there are over one hundred billion galaxies in the universe.

We simply cannot be "that special".

[DainBramaged]

40. Maybe that is why the Fundies in Congress wanted to cut off funding for the Hubble

so we WOULDN'T find extraterrestrial life.

And why SOME PEOPLE think this is a waste of money.

Just think about Teflon.

One with the Universe, one with the Universe.


I for one think this is wonderful. I'd rather piss away a BILLION dollars on space exploration than a billion dollars rescuing another of Booshe's buddies.

[mac2]

41. Or do anything "scientific".

[lakeguy]

47. maybe you dont realize many of the advances

we take for granted that are a direct result if the "wasted" money on space stuff. it's likely you benefit from a number of them.

i suppose you think supporting the arts is a waste too. and maybe roads you don't drive on. you should stop breathing my air, you are wasting it.

[Zhade]

52. If you despise science, get the fuck off your computer and stop posting.

It's not a magic box. Go the fuck away if you hate technology so much, you're just pissing everyone off.

[Posteritatis]

62. Luddites + the internet = hilarity. (nt)

[slampoet]

59. Methane on an other planet? That Means one thing: SPACE COWS, and that means SPACE BBQ!!

[pleah]

74. LOL!

:rofl: YUM!

[texas1928]

63. Well the deep space fart detector is working just fine.

SIGH

[sofa king]

64. Not lifeless. Life-as-we-know-it-less.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

70. Or maybe it used to be inhabited...

And its residents ignored global warming.

[sofa king]

76. Maybe space cows.

Making all that methane.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

77. Wouldn't that be moothane?

[sofa king]

79. Heh.

Regardless of whether or not space cows are responsible, methane (and probably lots of nitrogen) is a potentially nice atmosphere to start with if you're terraforming a planet. It would take a few hundred years to get there under the best of foreseeable circumstances, so what's a few hundred more to transform the planet once you get there?

[kineneb]

65. ...and for all you methane breathers in Alpha Centauri, its morning...

'way cool. More science! Space exploration! Fun!

(can you tell I grew up during the great days of the Space Program and science fiction?)

Space is big, really big.

[booley]

71. Interesting but doesn't seem that big a deal

If memory serves, most of the gas giants in our system have methane. While produced by living things, there are plenty of non-living chemical procceses that will also produce the gas.

Now if they can find oxygen, that will mean something because large amounts of oxygen isn't' stable in an atmosphere unless it's constantly being produced.

[Amonester]

82. Nothing's created, nothing's lost.

Particles evolve from "simplicity" (actually, not that simple...) to COMPLEX (and that includes, yes: LIFE), and many times they go back just being "simple" again. Especially when another SUPERNOVA "explodes" and then dissipates...

That said, one day or another, this species will either go back to "simplicity" (well on its way... as neocons rule) or will just have to "find" a new "home" out there...