Signs Of Water Found On Distant Planets

nphillips writes "According to this article at CNN, an Italian team has found evidence of water on three planetary systems. The team used a 32-meter radio telescope to search for water maser emissions, telltale microwaves which could indicate water in a planet's atmosphere when it is bathed in the infrared light of its star."

Comments

Hooray

[stratjakt]

Another CNN 'science' article about some guy who *MAY* have found something that *COULD* be important. *POSSIBLE* *MAYBE* *SORTA* *KINDA*

They're always so eager to publish anything by anyone in a lab coat who's in need of funding.

And of course there's nothing informative to explain what the story means.

Ie; What the hell is a maser? What does it emit? Am I the only one reading CNN that isn't an astrophysisist?

And inevitably, a few days later, they publish a 'follow-up' article which retracts everything they said. "Meteor to hit earth in 3 days!" "Another Moon Found" "Meteor actually not going to hit earth" "Moon is really dog-doo on a stick"

Meh.

Re:Ice == Water, right?

[Scarblac]

But it frustrates me that so many scientists always seem to believe that water in a liquid form is a necessity of life.

Of course I know nothing about what is necessary for life. But water is a really unique chemical. Because of the hydrogen bridges, many salts dissolve (ionize) very easily in water, and not in other chemicals.If you can't ionize salts, there is a large number of elements that you just can't use as a primitive life form because it'll remain rock. It's not so unreasonable to assume that complex life is very unlikely without water.