For years, science fiction narratives have duked it out over whether life forms elsewhere will be carbon-based, as we are, or something else -- say, silicone based. Who can forget Star Trek Next Generation Episode 17, "Home Soil," in which the intelligent sand aggregrate refers to our type of life as "ugly bags of mostly water"?
Today, we may be closer to an answer -- we have found our very first evidence of carbon on a planet outside our Solar System. Does that mean when we find alien life (at least life we recognize) it will be carbon-based? Hard to say, but the evidence of planetary carbon is tantalizing.
According to the BBC's science reporter, Helen Briggs, reporting a study published in Nature, methane (an organic--and so inherently carbon-based--compound) has been found in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a star that is approximately 63 light years from earth. The find was made by Dr. Giovanna Tinetti and co-authors Mark Swain and Gautam Vasisht from NASA's JPL (Pasadena CA) using the Hubble Space Telescope.
Why does methane matter? Briggs writes, "Under certain circumstances, methane can play a key role in prebiotic chemistry - the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life."
To date scientists have confirmed the existence of 270 planets orbiting stars other than Sol, our own. This most recent study also found water vapor in the planet's atmosphere, but scientists say they believe it is too hot to support life. Ah, but if not there, then where? and when?
source: BBC GCSE Science page on Atomic Structure and Bonding
Today, we may be closer to an answer -- we have found our very first evidence of carbon on a planet outside our Solar System. Does that mean when we find alien life (at least life we recognize) it will be carbon-based? Hard to say, but the evidence of planetary carbon is tantalizing.
According to the BBC's science reporter, Helen Briggs, reporting a study published in Nature, methane (an organic--and so inherently carbon-based--compound) has been found in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a star that is approximately 63 light years from earth. The find was made by Dr. Giovanna Tinetti and co-authors Mark Swain and Gautam Vasisht from NASA's JPL (Pasadena CA) using the Hubble Space Telescope.
Why does methane matter? Briggs writes, "Under certain circumstances, methane can play a key role in prebiotic chemistry - the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life."
To date scientists have confirmed the existence of 270 planets orbiting stars other than Sol, our own. This most recent study also found water vapor in the planet's atmosphere, but scientists say they believe it is too hot to support life. Ah, but if not there, then where? and when?
source: BBC GCSE Science page on Atomic Structure and Bonding
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