Kevin's Watch

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:35 am**

Hubble Detects Organic Molecule on an Extrasolar Planet

WASHINGTON - 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.

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:43 pm**

Cool article!

I fully expect one of these days for the Hubble to give us a lo-res picture from a distant planet..... of an empty Doritos bag.

dw

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:57 pm**

This is pretty awesome. I'm very interested to read about the details.

I also expect that one day Hubble will take a snapshot of another space telescope looking back at us.

Posted: **Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:10 pm**

I love the Hubble!

Sarge, THIS is the stuff that NASA does for us too.