Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Extra-Solar Water and Alien Plants

Today, the first extra-solar water was reported (the link is the BBC, but the original article is in Astrophysical Journal).  It looks like a gas giant planet is having its atmosphere evaporated by its sun, and in the process water vapor was discovered in the gas giant’s atmosphere.  Which is a bummer for the planet, but great for those of us who believe that life of some kind pretty much has to exist elsewhere in the universe.  The more water there is out there, the more likely it is that there is life as we more-or-less understand it.

I also came across an article about what color alien plants would likely be.  Of course, it depends on the atmosphere of the planet and the specific energy output of the star in question, but the article gives a few examples (how about purple foliage for plants bathed in the high ultraviolet light of the star AD Leo?).  All the possible examples are educated guesses, of course, since we’ve never seen alien plants and are remarkably unlikely to do so in our lifetimes.  But picture in your head a black rose with bright red or puple leaves (or subsitute your own favorite plant) and tell me that isn’t cool.