Scientists discover recipe for water in space

Scientists discover recipe for water in space

www.cnn.com

European scientists say they've figured out the recipe for water in space: Just add starlight.

They made the discovery while examining a dying star that is 500 light-years away from Earth, using an infrared observatory launched by the European Space Agency last year.

The story begins in 2001, when astronomers discovered an unexpected cloud of water vapor around an old star called IRC+10216. The star is known as a carbon star, not thought to make much water, so scientists initially thought the star's heat must have evaporated comets or dwarf planets to produce the water vapor.

(visit the link for the full news article)

What an amazing theory proposed by these scientists. It seems like every few days, new information is coming out about life on other worlds, and throughout out amazing universe.

This is exactly why more money and resources need to be devoted to space exploration and investigation, and away from silly, petty wars that divide humanity. We're all on this rock together, and the bickering is completely and utterly pointless.

Let's go discover things together.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Indeed, it does seem like all this new information is coming out about the Universe and all.

In 50 years everything we know now will be elementary; In 200 Years, hopefully, Everybody gets a Star Ship....

I want me a Star Ship

This is very interesting. I understand one of the puzzles that Science is still attempting to determine is where all of the water on Earth came from. I have seen several theories and this is very exciting to hear. I am not very well versed in the subject I am afraid. Could this new theory be able to describe how all of the water that is on our planet got here?

[edit on 3-9-2010 by idonotcollectstamps]

I think it's possible this is a clue as to how all water develops. It must come from somewhere, some chemical reaction between seemingly unrelated elements caught perfectly in the right conditions.

We are going to find out so many wonderful things over the next decade or so. Only wish we, as humans, had the foresight and willingness to devote our energy towards these endeavors instead of the pointless ventures most of us get behind.

Originally posted by RockerDom


What an amazing theory proposed by these scientists. It seems like every few days, new information is coming out about life on other worlds, and throughout out amazing universe.

This is exactly why more money and resources need to be devoted to space exploration and investigation, and away from silly, petty wars that divide humanity. We're all on this rock together, and the bickering is completely and utterly pointless.

Let's go discover things together.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Exactly!
Not to mention the incredible boost to our global resources we could achieve with simple space flight, Imagine worlds filled with all sorts of heavy metals that are rare on this planet, it could lead to us designing bigger better, well everything.

It's refreshing (hehe) to see no one's used this as proof that God doesn't exist.

This is really interesting.

As someone asked, Could this answer the question as to where the water on our planet came from?

It's really (opposite word of disheartening (: ) to see everything falling into place. Being the conspiracy theorist I am though, I feel like the government has been hiding stuff like this from us since we started looking to the stars. The government seems to be slowly easing off the subject of things in space. The Vatican's recent press release, to say the least.

Thanks for this post, gets my brain working hard : )

Perhaps I don't know what i'm talking about but how is this a big deal?
Hydrogen and Oxygen combined together makes water

How is this a breakthrough?
btw, not trying to act smart, i'm really just asking here
thx

reply to post by RockerDom


the title of this thread literally hurt my head. my first thought (my sarcastic side) was that did we really have to spend money on finding out the ingredients for water light years away?

didn't we already learn that the ingredients are H2O?

then i read the article. interesting stuff, perplexing article title, imo.

thanks for sharing, S&F,
et

PART II: SATURN AND THE FLOOD

Guess that leaves Saturn out as the water planet.
And a well documented event in human history, like one of the first.
We must now look for water stars.

Not so fast

Hey if the star, which burns down to iron before exploding and
thus has no water, explosion wipes out some water planets
would that not show up as the water presence and be more reasonable.

I thought it was just hydrogen + two oxygen...well damn.

Oh, really? Intelligent beings pointing their instruments this way might think they discovered nature's recipe for chili.