New results by Visiting Investigator Jeremy Richardson of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and former Research Staff member Sara Seager, now at M.I.T., are fueling the recent debate about the atmospheric conditions believed to be present on hot Jupiters—the results of which appear in the February 22 issue of Nature. Utilizing the Spitzer Space Telescope, the team obtained a spectrum of HD 209458b, located about 150 light years away from the constellation Pegasus. They determined that there were no signs of water or methane, but that there were hints of silicate—molecules containing silicon and oxygen—major components of rocks on Earth. Under the scorching temperatures on hot Jupiters, silicates would exist as tiny dust grains that could coalesce to form clouds.

According to a Space.com article entitled, “Clouds, But No Water, Detected on Distant Planet,” many scientists previously predicted that large amounts of water vapor ought to be present on hot Jupiters, due to large amounts of hydrogen and oxygen present in their atmospheres. According to Richardson and team, the high cloud cover present in HD 209458b prevents scientists from seeing if water is actually present on these planets.

Alan Boss commented on Space.com on the significance of these findings, saying “This is the first time that we have been able to look for water in the atmosphere of a distant extrasolar planet. The NASA mantra for looking for life on Mars is ‘follow the water’ and the same holds true for extrasolar planets. Looking for water will be one of the main goals of the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), and this new result just whets our appetite for what is to come when TPF flies.”

More:

Spitzer press release, images, press conference, and podcast

New York Times Article

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Feature

M.I.T. Press Release