Detecting organic material outside our solar system

Spitzer Finds Organics and Water Where New Planets May Grow
March 13, 2008

" Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered large amounts of simple organic gases and water vapor in a possible planet-forming region around an infant star, along with evidence that these molecules were created there. They've also found water in the same zone around two other young stars.

By pushing the telescope's capabilities to a new level, astronomers now have a better view of the earliest stages of planetary formation, which may help shed light on the origins of our own solar system and the potential for life to develop in others.

With their new procedures, they were able to detect the minute spectral signatures for three simple organic molecules--hydrogen cyanide, acetylene and carbon dioxide--plus water vapor. In addition, they found more of these substances in the disk than are found in the dense interstellar gas called molecular clouds from which the disk originated. "Molecular clouds provide the raw material from which the protoplanetary disks are created," said Carr. "So this is evidence for an active organic chemistry going on within the disk, forming and enhancing these molecules."

Astronomers will be able to fill an important gap--they know that water and organics are abundant in the interstellar medium but not what happens to them after they are incorporated into a disk. "Are these molecules destroyed, preserved or enhanced in the disk?" said Carr. "Now that we can identify these molecules and inventory them, we will have a better understanding of the origins and evolution of the basic building blocks of life--where they come from and how they evolve." Carr and Najita's research results appear in the March 14 issue of Science.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-042

Astronomers Detect First Organic Molecule on an Exoplanet
March 19, 2008

'A team of astronomers led by Mark Swain of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting another star. The breakthrough, made with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is an important step in eventually identifying signs of life on a planet outside our solar system.'

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-046