First Organic Molecules Found on Alien World

Galactic_grub writes "The detection of planet HD 189733b is in some ways just another small victory for extra-solar planetary science. It is too hot for there to be anything 'alive'. Just the same, somewhere on the planet are trace amounts of the gas methane. The fact that the element was detected at all offers hope for understanding future discoveries of Earth-like worlds, says NewScientistSpace. Researchers from Caltech and University College London used the Hubble Space Telescope to peer at the planet and examined spectral signature of starlight filtered by the planet's atmosphere, to identify different chemicals. 'The authors suggest that some ill-understood chemical process might be responsible, either concentrating the methane in cooler parts of the atmosphere, or generating extra methane directly. Alternatively, the methane might simply mean that the planet happens to be very rich in carbon.'"

Comments

Yet another step closer to my goal

[elrous0]

One day I'm gonna bang me a green chick.

Re:Yet another step closer to my goal

[radarsat1]

With that kind of mouth, it'll certainly happen before "you bang you" an earth girl.

Re:Yet another step closer to my goal

[MBGMorden]

Aren't we all going to be pissed if we finally find the green chicks one day and they're only interested in jocks and weightlifters?

Methane is not an element

[I'm a banana]

The fact that the element was detected at all

Methane is an element?

[blcamp]

The fact that the element was detected at all There's certainly an element of misunderstanding here.

Unfortunately, not a smoking gun...

[TripMaster Monkey]

Methane can be formed by inorganic processes...although how enough of it could be formed to be detectable to us way over here is an intriguing question.

Also, the planet is around 700 degrees Celsius...why are we so sure this completely precludes the possibility of life?

Re:Unfortunately, not a smoking gun...

[Metasquares]

Would such life depend on water? Well, not liquid water. It wouldn't be made up of combustable carbon chains, either.

Slightly tangential, but I never did understand why we primarily evaluated the life supporting capability of a planet based on whether water could be present. We might know tons about terrestrial life, but we know nothing about how life could begin in a different environment. Our earth-centric assumptions may not hold, even though the same laws of chemistry and physics do.

Test of Faith

[Psiren]

Meh, I'm positive that the FSM put it there, to test our faith in his noodly appendages. Life on another planet?! Preposterous!

Re:Test of Faith

[TripMaster Monkey]

HD 189733b is a graphic illustration of the fate of any planet that fails to maintain a sufficient population of pirates.

Please...

[Joseph1337]

Please no more overlords, my back fucking hurts from the whip with those we got now...

Misleading

[Webs 101]

The surprising thing here isn't that the astronomers discovered methane on a planet. Heck, Uranus is full of the stuff and other gas giants have it as well.

It's not surprising to find methane on an extrasolar planet. What is different about this is, to QTFA:

"Initially, that is surprising," says Sara Seager of MIT in Cambridge, US, who was not involved in the study. Because HD 189733b orbits very close to its parent star - just 10% of Mercury's distance from the Sun, it is very hot, with atmospheric temperatures of about 700 Celsius. "When the temperature is this high, the dominant form of carbon should be carbon monoxide, not methane," says Seager.

Re:Misleading headline

[Alioth]

Yes it does. Methane is an organic molecule. If you find methane, you've found an organic molecule. Organic chemistry is not necessarily produced by life forms.

That group of compounds (things like methane, ethane, propane, butane etc.) are all part of organic chemistry, and whether you find them with or without life they are still organic chemistry.