800°

Signs of Water Found on 5 Alien Planets

Discovery:

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected water in the atmospheres of five planets beyond our solar system, two recent studies reveal.

The five exoplanets with hints of water are all scorching-hot, Jupiter-size worlds that are unlikely to host life as we know it. But finding water in their atmospheres still marks a step forward in the search for distant planets that may be capable of supporting alien life, researchers said.

Read Full Story >>
news.discovery.com
mp12894030d ago

Finding water isn't significant, its everywhere in the universe. Liquid water on the other hand, thats difficult.

windblowsagain4030d ago

That's true, but if there is ice on the planet, there could be liquid water underneath. Hopefully. But hey we are fuking this planet up. Do we need to do it to another.

Hozi4030d ago

have you seen the movie "Europa Report"? I recommend you check it out, it's exactly what you guys are talking about. kinda.

SITH4030d ago

Europa is an active planet in that it has active volcanoes. Combine that with the fact the planet is I cased in a thick layer of ice, it very well may have oceans however not the oceans you may thing. The volcanoes do not erupt molten rock. They are known as cryovolcanos and they erupt ice, methane, and water which cause an extremly coulda liquid to flow. Europa is very unique in our solar system.

GenericNameHere4030d ago

Is water really that important when it comes to finding extraterrestrial life? It's possible that with the infinite amount of galaxies there are, there are bound to be billions or greater planets that don't even need water for its inhabitants to survive.

mechlord4030d ago

@GenericNameHere

The problem is, how do you define whats life and whats not in the context of the universe? since we dont know what other types of life there can be out there, we can only look for something that we understand as "living" and that's why we look for water.

Otherwise we would just look into planet after planet and try to see if whatever is in there is alive in any form (not necessarily our way of defining being alive)

We need a criteria to look into the cosmos. its just way to big to do it randomly and trying to make sense of the data. Looking for known patterns (water and all its associated phenomena) is the best bet we ve got. besides, if we find beings with a biology similar to ours, its gonna be easier to interact with than say - ethereal beings

SITH4030d ago (Edited 4030d ago )

Not a problem. Life, the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

And if we run into your, "ethereal beings" like say god. Then science will alter the theory of what constitutes life. Meanwhile... no such thing as ethereal beings and not even a theory for it because no scientific evidence of it exists to form one.

70°

NASA radar images show stadium-sized asteroid tumbling by Earth during flyby

The asteroid zoomed by Earth at a perfectly safe distance of around 1.8 million miles (2.9 kilometers).

70°

Odysseus mission to be cut short after moon lander's sideways touchdown

Engineers expect to lose contact with the private US moon lander Odysseus on Tuesday, cutting short the mission after its sideways touchdown last week.

Read Full Story >>
news.sky.com
60°

NASA: Despite lost contact, there is still hope for the $32.7 million Capstone spacecraft

NASA announced Tuesday that a $32.7 million Capstone spacecraft intended to try out a skewed lunar orbit had lost contact, but agency engineers are confident

Read Full Story >>
techacrobat.com