Peek! I See You!
Posted on | February 22, 2007
We’re not only finding planets circling nearby stars; we’ve begun to sample their atmospheres:
The study of one planet found hints of fine silicate-particle clouds. Research on the other planet found no chemical fingerprints for any of the molecules scientists were seeking.
“We had expected this tremendous signature of water … and it wasn’t there,” said the study leader for one team, Carl Grillmair of the California Institute of Technology and Spitzer Science Center. “The very fact that we’ve been surprised here is a wake-up call. We obviously need to do some more work.”
Grillmair’s colleague, Harvard astronomy professor David Charbonneau, said these surprising “sniffs of air from an alien world” tell astronomers not to be so Earth-centric in thinking about other planets.
“These are very different beasts. These are unlike any other planets in the solar system,” Charbonneau said. “We’re limited by our imagination in thinking about the different avenues that these atmospheres take place in.”
