2 min read

Hubble Detects Organic Molecule on an Extrasolar Planet

MEDIA ADVISORY : M08-058

WASHINGTON - NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 19, to report on the first-ever detection of the organic molecule methane in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star.

Though the planet is too hot to support life as we know it, the finding demonstrates the ability to detect organic molecules spectroscopically around Earth-like planets in habitable zones around stars.

Briefing participants are:

- Dr. Mark Swain, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

- Dr. Sara Seager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

This unique discovery, made with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), will be featured in the March 20 issue of the journal Nature.

To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact Ray Villard at 410-338-4514 or Cheryl Gundy at 410-338-4707 at the Space Telescope Science Institute by noon on March 19 for the call-in number and passcode. At the start of the briefing, images and supporting graphics will be posted on the Web at:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2008/11

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's Web site at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

- end -

text-only version of this release

NASA press releases and other information are available automatically by sending a blank e-mail message to hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov. To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a blank e-mail message to hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov.

Back to NASA Newsroom | Back to NASA Homepage

› Back To Top