Hubble finds oxygen, carbon on distant planet

Reuters ^ | February 2, 2004

[Dog Gone]

WASHINGTON -- The Hubble Space Telescope has detected oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere of a distant planet, the first time these elements have been found around a world outside our solar system, scientists said today.

Unlike Earth, the planet is a hot, gassy orb very close to its sun-like star, and the oxygen and carbon are not signs of any sort of life, Hubble scientists said in a statement.

Still, astronomers said Hubble's findings show that the chemical composition of atmospheres of planets many light-years away can be measured.

The planet -- known as HD 209458b or Osiris -- is orbiting a star 150 light-years from Earth. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

Osiris is only 4.3 million miles from its star -- compared with Earth's 93 million miles from the sun -- and whips around in an orbit of less than four days.

It belongs to a class of planets called "hot Jupiters," whose upper atmosphere is so hot it boils hydrogen off into space.

NASA announced last month that it would not send a previously scheduled servicing mission to Hubble, effectively consigning the orbiting telescope to a slow death, although that decision is now being re-evaluated. 

[lepton]

FREE Oxygen?

[Dog]

I hope they decide to keep Hubble.

[Cboldt]

I heard the decision to forego further service missions to Hubble is being reconsidered. Wish I had a link for the story, sorry about that.

[Fzob]

It belongs to a class of planets called "hot Jupiters," whose upper atmosphere is so hot it boils hydrogen off into space.

Ok, so what happens when all the H2 is boiled off?

[sigSEGV]

There are a whole new breed of space telescopes coming up that will blow hubble away.

[RightWhale]

consigning the orbiting telescope to a slow death

Apparently the decision was made over 5 years ago by the astronomical community. The Shuttle service mission would have provided another 2 years of life, but that was to be the last Shuttle mission to Hubble anyway.

[Cboldt]

There are a whole new breed of space telescopes coming up that will blow hubble away.

Amazing, isn't it! Great images, and better to come. Wow!

[Dog Gone]

I heard the decision to forego further service missions to Hubble is being reconsidered. Wish I had a link for the story, sorry about that.

Read the last sentence of this story again slowly.

[thoughtomator]

No, but perhaps a good place to Free Mumia.

[jaz.357]

"Hot Jupiters,"

Thats a COOL name for a band!

[Cboldt]

Read the last sentence of this story again slowly.

LOL. Oops. I was reacting to your post, and didn't read much of the article. I get NASA press briefing via e-mail, and could have read about the reconsidration in one of those.

[Dog Gone]

I was informed in all the science fiction books I thrived on as a teenager that the presence of oxygen in a planet's atmosphere would be a surefire indicator of life.

This doesn't sound like a very hospitable planet, although we're peeking in through a window from a quite a distance.

[Cboldt]

Read the last sentence of this story again slowly.

LOL. Oops. I was reacting to your post, and didn't read much of the article. I get NASA press briefing via e-mail, and could have read about the reconsidration in one of those.

Oops again, didn't mean to correlate "Dog Gone" with "Dog," but I did. Sorry about that.

[TomServo]

Boy - I'm glad we're abandoning Hubble.

[jaz.357]

Good link: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/newworlds/poof.html

[TomServo]

Read the last sentence of this story again slowly.

Whoops - me too...

[Dog Gone]

Dog's my friend, but he's not gone. LOL

[colorado tanker]

a hot, gassy orb very close to its sun-like star

Wesley Clark and Bill Clinton?

[geopyg]

I think I read somewhere (hopefully not in THIS article) that the "next generation" space telescope is going up in 2010 or something anyway. True?