• Water vapour found in atmosphere of nearby alien planet
    13 replies, posted
[quote]Water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere of one of the first alien planets ever identified by astronomers. Advances in the technique used to scan the atmosphere of this "hot Jupiter" could help scientists determine how many of the billions of planets in the Milky Way contain water like Earth, researchers said. The exoplanet Tau Boötis b was discovered in 1996, when the search for worlds outside our solar system was just kicking off. At about 51 light-years away, Tau Boötis b is one of the nearest known exoplanets to Earth. The planet is considered a "hot Jupiter" because it is a massive gas giant that orbits close to its parent star. [A Gallery of the Strangest Alien Planets][/quote] [url]http://www.space.com/24806-water-vapor-exoplanet-hot-jupiter.html[/url] [sp]Cue I want to believe[/sp]
You'd think that, but it's a gas planet so there's probably no solid ground or actual sea. Even if life could be created in gasclouds, it'd be very strange indeed.
[quote] Tau Boötis b [/quote] Tau Bootis b ain't got shit on the bootis of Tau Bootis a. I love how every day that passes we learn a little bit more about the universe around us
I wonder what lifeforms in gas-giants might look like. I imagine long strands of seaweed-like plant life spreading spores..
[QUOTE=pansarkurt;44058017]I wonder what lifeforms in gas-giants might look like.[/QUOTE] Giant jellyfish
Considering that Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the universe, and Oxygen is the 3rd most abundant in the Milky Way, it's pretty straight forward that there is going to be a good chance that water exists in some form or another around the place. Pretty cool to see it in this way though.
[QUOTE=pansarkurt;44058017]I wonder what lifeforms in gas-giants might look like.[/QUOTE] Space whales. SPACE WHALES!
[QUOTE=pansarkurt;44058017]I wonder what lifeforms in gas-giants might look like. I imagine long strands of seaweed-like plant life spreading spores..[/QUOTE] Sonar panels with eyes
[QUOTE=ironman17;44057973]You'd think that, but it's a gas planet so there's probably no solid ground or actual sea. Even if life could be created in gasclouds, it'd be very strange indeed.[/QUOTE] There has been some pretty snazzy speculation about that already. [IMG]http://universeacross.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/bubble-life-1.png[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/floaterhunter.jpg[/IMG] These images were used in one of the episodes of carl segans cosmos, but i cant remember wich one. Speaks of an ecosystem of sinkers, floaters and hunters, where sinkers are carried to the higher currents as larvae, and multiply before they are lost to the pressurized depths of the lower currents, floaters who metabolize gasses and store it in their bodies to stay buoyant, and hunters who live by robbing these gasses from the floaters. pretty interesting stuff.
[QUOTE=pansarkurt;44058017]I wonder what lifeforms in gas-giants might look like. I imagine long strands of seaweed-like plant life spreading spores..[/QUOTE] [img]http://lparchive.org/Star-Control-2/Update%209/02.jpg[/img]
wouldn't there be a band where the pressure is roughly equal to the pressure experienced by most marine life in the sea? life isn't completely implausible, especially considering the usually high petrochemical and organic content of typical gas giants
An interesting thing to note is that watery Jupiters (aka Sudarsky Class II gas giants, ammonia-cloud gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are Class I) would have a high probability of ocean-covered, Earth-or-smaller-sized moons. Jupiter's moon Europa very, very likely is an ice-coated ocean-covered moon, with Callisto and Ganymede being highly composed of water ice, which makes this even more plausible.
We must blow it up. Don't question me we must.
[QUOTE=Sprockethead;44058126]There has been some pretty snazzy speculation about that already. [IMG]http://universeacross.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/bubble-life-1.png[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/floaterhunter.jpg[/IMG] These images were used in one of the episodes of carl segans cosmos, but i cant remember wich one. Speaks of an ecosystem of sinkers, floaters and hunters, where sinkers are carried to the higher currents as larvae, and multiply before they are lost to the pressurized depths of the lower currents, floaters who metabolize gasses and store it in their bodies to stay buoyant, and hunters who live by robbing these gasses from the floaters. pretty interesting stuff.[/QUOTE] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uakLB7Eni2E[/media]
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