Hubble Telescope
I thought this video Hubblecast was absolutely fascinating. The NASA Hubble Space Telescope made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in a planet outside of our solar system. This opened up the possibility of life elsewhere. This was recorded back in March 2008.
Tasithoughts' Weblog 
Great post.. I had never seen this hubblecast before, but it’s interesting the more and more we learn about other planets the more live we will find. But what if we find infinite life?
Tim,
That would be to say, at the very least, real cool. 🙂
JP
you have a good point. what if we do find infinite lifeee???? we might not be the only ones living. there could be other peoplle just like us out there somewhere.
that would be really interesting to find life outside of earth. just like you said… there could be people just like us out there somewhere its all so facinating to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! space is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very interesting, could the gas be anything else? Could there still be life at the extreme temperatures mentioned in the planets atmosphere as there is in the hot vents deep in our oceans.
Bill
Life is much more hardy than we thought 25 years ago. Primitive archeabacteria can live in boiling acid and water lake in yellowstone national park. The same type of bacteria has been induced to grow from salt cyrstals that formed in Utah salt mines 40 million years ago. The volcanic vents that you mention Bill, has everything from bacteria to worms and crabs, living under extremely high pressure. The bacteria living in these thermal vents thrive in 400 degree water that has heavy metals dissolved in them that would normally be toxic to life on the surface. Life on our planet has adapted to many extreme conditions.
That said, a few conditions must be needed for life to exist. Liquid water must be present for cells to function. The planet HD189733B has an average temperature of 900 degrees and that makes liquid water impossible near the surface. Lots of steam, but no liquid water. Deeper in the planets atmosphere (its about the size of Jupiter) water can enter a supercritical state, in which it is very fluid, but the temperature is even higher this depth. Life forms could not control needed cell functions at these kinds of tempertures. The planet is very close to its star, so is in what is called gravitational lock, meaning one side of the planet always faces the star and one side faces away. The temperature difference would make stable layers (where life could live and reproduce) unlikely.
There is another liquid water ocean in our solar system. It is one of Jupiter’s moons called Europa. I’d currently lay my money down on Europa.
Gary Benz
Very interesting and good post