First planet with Carbon Dioxide in atmosphere found!

www.space.com...

This is an important discovery to say the least. Another piece of the puzzle.

first exoplanet with carbon dioxide, mars has shedloads of the stuff.

but good news it bodes well for future missions and shows we are capable of getting this information from planets around other stars.

[edit on 27-11-2008 by yeti101]

reply to post by yeti101

...and Venus' atmosphere is almost ALL carbon dioxide (more there than on Earth).

I do agree with your assertion that the analysis of this exoplanet's is exciting purely because it shows that we can developed the tools we will need to be able to analyze the atmosphere of far-off exoplanets without even "seeing" them.

*NEW*

blog.wired.com...

"A sugar molecule linked to the origin of life was discovered in a potentially habitable region of our galaxy."

"The molecule, called glycolaldehyde, was spotted in a large star-forming area of space around 26,000 light-years from Earth in the less-chaotic outer regions of the Milky Way. This suggests the sugar could be common across the universe, which is good news for extraterrestrial-life seekers."

Read somewhere they are now able to detect planet wobbles as well, which will give them indications of moons, because the main planets are too big to be of any use to us in terms of landing on them.... It's all good, now all we've got to do is open up a few wormholes and hey presto, new planets to screw up (or if we really really try, treasure).