Finding Water Isn't So Easy

Topic(s): space
2007-04-23 01:52:44 PDT

Finding water on some other planet would be huge. Because if we're ever to get off this planet, we'll be needing water wherever it is we decide to go. And also because water is an essential ingredient for both Earth-bound and non-Earth-bound life as we currently understand it. Meaning if we're ever going to find non-terrestrial slime ponds, granite lichens, tropical forests, intelligent civilizations, etc. that we should first be looking for non-terrestrial water.

By now we've found a couple hundred extrasolar planets (extrasolar meaning not part of Earth's solar system), so that's become sort of ho-hum as of late. We know their masses, their orbital periods. But learning much anything else of use about those extrasolar planets has been a challenge. Mostly because we have neither the technology nor the technique to do so.

But about two weeks ago the scientific community announced that the planet designated as HD209458b shows signs of water in its atmosphere.

Before you go jetting off to HD209458b you should know that HD209458b isn't a very hospitable planet. In fact there's no possibility of us or any sort of life (as we know it) living there. But that's not important.

What is important is that we've found a technique to determine if a planet has water in its atmosphere. If that technique shakes out as accurate and reliable, which will likely take several years to be sure about, then we can use that technique on other planets which might be hospitable.

What I mean by that is this -- doing something the first time is always difficult. But then after the first time it becomes much easier. That's something we can all relate to in some way.

So we've accomplished this "first time" water discovery, and I'm hoping that the times after will be easier. This little bit of "first time" news that probably went unnoticed by most people really excites me!

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