- European scientists have discovered that
there are enormous amounts of water in space, raising new questions about
extraterrestrial life and giving new answers about why life evolved on
Earth.
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- Using a new ultracold orbiting telescope
that works with infrared light, astronomers found water vapor in the freezing
atmospheres of Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn, the U.K.'s Guardian
newspaper writes. They also revealed Tuesday that they have detected water
in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, and have even identified a cloud
of water, less than a light year across, in the constellation Orion.
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- The water is so thinly spread, however,
that it wouldn't quench anyone's thirst. Despite the huge amounts of water
found, interstellar space remains empty by earthly standards, with fewer
molecules per cubic meter than the most perfect vacuum produced by man,
according to the London Times.
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- The most interesting finding was the
water around Titan, since a joint US-European probe will explore it in
2004.
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- Roger Bonnet, director of science at
the European Space Agency, said that finding water around Titan meant that
the moon had almost all the conditions needed for life, except that it
was too far from the sun. "It is very like the Earth was billions
of years ago," he said. "All it needs is a bit of heat."
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- In March, the presence of water on the
moon was confirmed and on Jupiter's moon Europa was detected, but this
amount of water astounded scientists.
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- The discovery by Europe's Infrared Space
Observatory (ISO) also confirms a growing belief that water on Earth may
have been delivered by comets, icy scraps of dust left over from the birth
of stars.
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- Using instruments called spectroscopes,
scientists have identified a large range of organic molecules in space,
including hydrogen cyanide, alcohol and formaldehyde. But water is the
first requirement for life. The ISO experiment, which costs nearly $1 billion,
confirms once again that there could be life on planets in other solar
systems. The next step will be to look for tell-tale signs of life itself:
concentrations of oxygen or ozone in distant atmospheres of other planets.
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