Search for life in Outer Space improved

Are we alone in space?

Extrasolar planets are candidates for life in Outer Space. Astronomers and astro-biologists use high resolution telescopes to detect traces of life on planets outside our solar system. More than 400 planets have been identified meanwhile most of them consisting of gas. Some of them have the size of Jupiter, the biggest planet which orbits our sun. Surprisingly some of these planets consist of hard and stony material maybe allowing earth-like atmospheres, a kind of "Super-Earth".

German, British and US-American scientists already have spotted traces of methane, water and carbon dioxide on a distant gas planet (called: HD 189733b) which has the size of Jupiter and is 63 light years away from us. These organic compounds are known to be important for the development of life.

The scientists used a thirty years old NASA-telescope (located in Hawai on top of an inactive volcano) to discover this exciting result on the way to find life in cosmos.
This has been possible due to a new analysis method (developed by the German team collegues) which allows to filter extremely weak signals from the extra solar planets. With even stronger and more advanced newer telescopes it should be possible to detect more and complexer organic molecules on distant planets.
The scientists believe that the research for organic molecules on extrasolar planets made a huge step forward by using this new technology.
"Finally we have the tool to find the needle in the haystack", says one of the German astronomers and crows: "Who knows which surprises are still to come one day?"

Sources:

- Seth Redfield, Extrasolar planets: Fluorescent methane spotted, Nature 463 (4 February 2010), doi:10.1038/463617a;

- idw-online

- http://astrobiology.cf.ac.uk/

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