Oct. 21, 2009 Peering far beyond our solar system, NASA
researchers have detected the basic chemistry for life in a
second hot gas planet, advancing astronomers toward the goal of
being able to characterize planets where life could exist. The
planet is not habitable but it has the same chemistry that, if
found around a rocky planet in the future, could indicate the
presence of life. "It's the second planet outside our solar
system in which water, methane and carbon dioxide have been
found, which are potentially important for biological processes
in habitable planets," said researcher Mark Swain of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Detecting organic
compounds in two exoplanets now raises the possibility that it
will become commonplace to find planets with molecules that may
be tied to life." Swain and his co-investigators used data from
two of NASA's orbiting Great Observatories, the Hubble Space
Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, to study HD 209458b, a
hot, gaseous giant planet bigger th