<p>We can look up for water in the atmosphere of the planet, not at the planet itself. We can do that when a planet passes in front of a star. That tehnique is called transmission spectroscopy.</p>

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2014-09-25T17:57:03.447Z
I initially flagged this answer as spam. Why did you originally type out nonsense?
HDE 226868
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2014-09-25T17:57:10.690Z
Sorry, my phone stucked for a moment
user2481
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2014-09-25T17:59:02.760Z
Ahhhhh. My apologies. I've seen a lot of nonsense answers on SEs before, and I try my best to help get rid of them. Note to whichever moderator sees my flag: I retract it. By the way, the downvote was automatically triggered by the flag; I don't know how to remove it manually myself, but it should be removed when the flag is rejected. Again, my apologies.
HDE 226868
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2014-09-25T18:13:30.350Z
It's ok, was my mistake.
user2481
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2014-09-25T18:20:28.997Z
No, no, I was too trigger-happy.
HDE 226868
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2014-09-26T00:59:49.497Z
@HDE226868, I guess, you can just upvote. To the answering user, it would be nice if you can argue a bit your answer, and give some references.
Py-ser
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2014-09-26T14:13:48.683Z
@user2481 so that means we can employ this transmission spectroscopy to scan Venus but not for Mars?
jorel
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2014-09-26T15:15:43.160Z
@Pyser I upvoted yesterday.
HDE 226868
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2014-09-26T21:28:03.023Z
@jorel We can do that with Mars as well, but because Mars and Venus are close to us, we are not limited just to Earth-based observations. We can send a probe to do all the science in situ, as the matter of fact, freshly arrived MAVEN examines martian atmosphere as we speak.
user2481
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2014-09-25T17:53:35.560Z
2014-09-25T18:08:08.757Z
2014-09-25T18:08:08.757Z
user2481
<p>Often I see news articles claiming astronomers found exoplanets with water. If we are capable of detecting water on such distant objects, why don't we employ similar methods to find water on Mars or Titan moon?</p>

<exoplanet><mars><water>
Why can't we detect water on Mars in the same way as in exoplanets?
jorel
# Why can't we detect water on Mars in the same way as in exoplanets?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-09-25)

Often I see news articles claiming astronomers found exoplanets with water. If we are capable of detecting water on such distant objects, why don't we employ similar methods to find water on Mars or Titan moon?

**Tags:** exoplanet, mars, water

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-09-25. Score: 9 | Accepted answer

We can look up for water in the atmosphere of the planet, not at the planet itself. We can do that when a planet passes in front of a star. That tehnique is called transmission spectroscopy.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I initially flagged this answer as spam. Why did you originally type out nonsense?  
> **username_1**: Sorry, my phone stucked for a moment  
> **username_2**: Ahhhhh. My apologies. I've seen a lot of nonsense answers on SEs before, and I try my best to help get rid of them. Note to whichever moderator sees my flag: I retract it. By the way, the downvote was automatically triggered by the flag; I don't know how to remove it manually myself, but it should be removed when the flag is rejected. Again, my apologies.  
> **username_1**: It's ok, was my mistake.  
> **username_2**: No, no, I was too trigger-happy.  
> **username_3**: @HDE226868, I guess, you can just upvote. To the answering user, it would be nice if you can argue a bit your answer, and give some references.  
> **username_0**: @user2481 so that means we can employ this transmission spectroscopy to scan Venus but not for Mars?  
> **username_2**: @Pyser I upvoted yesterday.  
> **username_1**: @jorel We can do that with Mars as well, but because Mars and Venus are close to us, we are not limited just to Earth-based observations. We can send a probe to do all the science in situ, as the matter of fact, freshly arrived MAVEN examines martian atmosphere as we speak.  

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