Space oddity: Key Earth compound found outside solar system


	Space oddity: Key Earth compound found outside solar system

BobbyDelray

3-19-2008 11:24 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/7c6323e9-bfe7-448e-bfb1-fdafac11675d/F7F5FFF5-52E9-42B6-80DE-B8B9DC0ADB97/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/space-oddity-ke.html" href="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/space-oddity-ke.html" style="font-size: 11px;">blogs.usatoday.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/space-oddity-ke.html">For the first time, a molecule containing carbon — the organic building block of life on Earth — has been found outside our solar system.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/space-oddity-ke.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/blogs.usatoday.com/img/ECAB3622-11D5-41DC-B525-FC80D83E1C8C" alt="Methane031908" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/space-oddity-ke.html">Scientists report in the journal <EM>Nature</EM> that <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane">methane</A> — yes, that smelly gas — was detected in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size planet about 63 <A href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/question94.htm">light years</A> away. (That's roughly 3.7 quadrillion miles, give or take a trillion.) Atmospheric water was discovered also.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/space-oddity-ke.html">But don't get your hopes up that this is where your <A href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=are-aliens-among-us">extraterrestrial relatives</A> are hiding: The big ball of gas is orbiting too close to its sun to support earthly life. The scientists write, however, that "under the right circumstances" methane  <EM>can play a key role in prebiotic chemistry — the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life as we know it.</EM></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/space-oddity-ke.html">Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab found the far-away molecules with the <A href="http://hubble.nasa.gov/">Hubble Space Telescope</A>. Here's the <A href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-046">news release</A>.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/space-oddity-ke.html">The <A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7301390.stm">BBC</A> and <A href="http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080319-extrasolar-methane.html">Space.com</A> have more.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/F7F5FFF5-52E9-42B6-80DE-B8B9DC0ADB97/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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