Signs of water seen on moon around Jupiter AND on planet outside solar system - Political Forum

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary · 04-11-2007, 10:41 AM

Signs of water seen on planet outside solar system - Yahoo! News

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Signs of water seen on planet outside solar system
By Will Dunham Tue Apr 10, 8:44 PM ET

An illustration of a Jupiter-like gaseous planet located 150 light years from Earth

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Evidence of water has been detected for the first time in a planet outside our solar system, an astronomer said on Tuesday, a tantalizing find for scientists eager to know whether life exists beyond Earth. Travis Barman, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, said water vapor has been found in the atmosphere of a large, Jupiter-like gaseous planet located 150 light years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The planet is known as HD 209458b.

Other scientists reported in February that they were unable to find evidence of water in this planet's atmosphere, as well as another Jupiter-like planet.

"I'm very confident," Barman said in an interview. "It's definitely good news because water has been predicted to be present in the atmosphere of this planet and many of the other ones for some time."

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Water is plentiful on Earth and has been found elsewhere in our solar system, for example in large deposits of ice at the north and south poles of Mars. Planet HD 209458b also was the first planet outside the solar system found with an atmosphere and the first detected transiting planet. There are more than 200 known planets outside our solar system.

Jupiter's Europa Harbors Possible "Warm Ice" or Liquid Water

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Jupiter's Europa Harbors Possible "Warm Ice" or Liquid Water

Tantalizing new images of Jupiter's moon Europa from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicate that "warm ice" or even liquid water may have existed, and perhaps still exists today beneath Europa's cracked icy crust.

The Europa results are one of several new Galileo findings, including an image of a huge erupting geyser-like volcano on Jupiter's moon Io and new information about Jupiter's Great Red Spot, released today in a news briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA.

Galileo scientists are poring over images that show places on Europa resembling ice floes in Earth's polar regions, along with suggestions of geyser-like eruptions and details of long dark bands centered with white stripes that stretch like interstate highways across Europa's face.

"This moon is a marvelous place," said Dr. Ronald Greeley, a Galileo imaging team scientist and a geologist at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. "We're seeing evidence of a lot of geological activity on Europa."

There's some talk of sending a mission to Europa to drill through the ice to look for life. Some scientists have mentioned the possibility of finding life on other planets. They may not be as sophisticated as us, but they could be similar to life that we find near the bottom of the ocean, which exists in very cold temperatures, high amount of pressure, and only the existence of volcanic chemicals and water for life.

dahermit · 04-21-2007, 12:01 PM

It is exciting that they have discovered liquid water on the moon of Europa. Coupled with the knowledge that life is possible without dependence on sunlight as verified by the "black smokers" and their surrounding ecosystems, life may very well exist on Europa.
Think of the possibilities. Huge, intelligent lobster like creatures. We could transport their representatives to our world in water-filled environmental capsules. We could learn to communicate with them! We could boil them and dip them in butter! Think of the possibilities!

presluc · 04-21-2007, 01:08 PM

Web, I think a find like this could lead to very important sceintific possibilities,
Perhaps, even more, I don't recall if it was you or someone else,on another thread discussing space travel.
Call me an idolistic dreamer if you wish, but I beleive someday the human race will go farther than our galaxy,so we should learn all we can about other planets now.
This may not happen in my lifetime, and I have no idea how but I beleive it will happen.

emptypepsi · 04-21-2007, 01:49 PM

Thanks for this story, WEB. I'm actually going to send this out to people I know. The more word of important space discoveries gets out, the more of a chance we have of getting people behind funding for space exploration.

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary · 04-25-2007, 12:02 AM

Here's another one:

Potentially habitable planet found - Yahoo! News

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Potentially habitable planet found
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.

There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it's worth noting that scientists' requirements for habitability count Mars in that category: a size relatively similar to Earth's with temperatures that would permit liquid water. However, this is the first outside our solar system that meets those standards.

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What they revealed is a planet circling the red dwarf star, Gliese 581. Red dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars that give off dim red light and last longer than stars like our sun. Until a few years ago, astronomers didn't consider these stars as possible hosts of planets that might sustain life.

The discovery of the new planet, named 581 c, is sure to fuel studies of planets circling similar dim stars. About 80 percent of the stars near Earth are red dwarfs.

The new planet is about five times heavier than Earth. Its discoverers aren't certain if it is rocky like Earth or if its a frozen ice ball with liquid water on the surface. If it is rocky like Earth, which is what the prevailing theory proposes, it has a diameter about 1 1/2 times bigger than our planet. If it is an iceball, as Mayor suggests, it would be even bigger.

Based on theory, 581 c should have an atmosphere, but what's in that atmosphere is still a mystery and if it's too thick that could make the planet's surface temperature too hot, Mayor said.

However, the research team believes the average temperature to be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees and that set off celebrations among astronomers.

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04-25-2007, 12:24 AM

another one here:

Found: The New Earth | News | This is London

04-25-2007, 12:29 AM

have you heard about blue moon? amazing:

Blue Moon is a moon with a 240 hour day that orbits a planet in a twin star solar system. Its atmosphere is three times denser than Earth's and behaves like a suspended ocean, supporting life that floats and glides through the sky. It has carbon dioxide levels 30 times those of Earth's, which fuels rampant plant growth, and oxygen levels over four times higher which supercharges animal life with more than twice the muscular strength. Dr. Martin Heath, a geoscientist with the Ecospheres Project, says, "I think that one day we may indeed find something rather like the Blue Moon ... this is no longer the stuff of science fiction."

National Geographic imagines alien life in new TV series

04-25-2007, 12:31 AM

here see the pictures and videos about blue moon:

National Geographic Channel: EXTRATERRESTRIAL

presluc · 05-01-2007, 03:08 PM

I thank you for posting that.
I guess I'm a step behind, cause to be truthful I did not know about this BLUE MOON.
It is quite remarkable.
To me it is knowledge well received,and greatly appreciated.

Slartibartfas · 05-01-2007, 03:20 PM

How did they find out that there is water on an extrasolar planet?
Are scientists already able to see large extrasolar planets directly? I thought they found them all only indirectly through inregularities in the movement of the sun?

But maybe I am not up to date here. Perhaps someone could enlighten me here?