Right now Fox news is reporting (scrolling across the bottom of the screen) that using the Hubble telescope scientists have found oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet in another solar system! it may be close to the end of it's life but it is going out kicking and screaming!!!

.....check it out; it's the future and....it's way cool!

http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

sadly i think the hubble is about done, NASA has decided they aren't going to upgrade/fix it anymore and when it stops working that'll just be the end of it. (so says my astro prof who professes to know about such things)

yeah yeah yeah. but that's not the point! the point is this :

we have confirmation of a world OUTSIDE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM that has oxygen and carbon dioxide in it's atmosphere!

it's not like it's earth's sister or something....

http://www.sunspot.net/news/health/bal-te.hubble03feb03,0,2774392.story?coll=bal-health-headlines

yea, there's O2 and CO2, but not for long.

skeptic!;) still great news. thanks for the article

....This thing is "flying right now; here's info from NASA:

About Spitzer

NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility) was launched into space by a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 25 August 2003. During its 2.5-year mission, Spitzer will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space between wavelengths of 3 and 180 microns (1 micron is one-millionth of a meter). Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground.

Consisting of a 0.85-meter telescope and three cryogenically-cooled science instruments, Spitzer is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space. Its highly sensitive instruments give us a unique view of the Universe and allow us to peer into regions of space which are hidden from optical telescopes. Many areas of space are filled with vast, dense clouds of gas and dust which block our view. Infrared light, however can penetrate these clouds, allowing us to peer into regions of star formation, the centers of galaxies, and into newly forming planetary systems. Infrared also brings us information about the cooler objects in space, such as smaller stars which are too dim to be detected by their visible light, extrasolar planets, and giant molecular clouds. Also, many molecules in space, including organic molecules, have their unique signatures in the infrared.

Because infrared is primarily heat radiation, the telescope must be cooled to near absolute zero (-459 degrees Fahrenheit or -273 degrees Celsius) so that it can observe infrared signals from space without interference from the telescope's own heat. Also, the telescope must be protected from the heat of the Sun and the infrared radiation put out by the Earth. To do this, Spitzer carries a solar shield and will be launched into an Earth-trailing solar orbit. This unique orbit places Spitzer far enough away from the Earth to allow the telescope to cool rapidy without having to carry large amounts of cryogen (coolant). This innovative approach has significantly reduced the cost of the mission.

Spitzer will be the final mission in NASA's Great Observatories Program - a family of four orbiting observatories, each observing the Universe in a different kind of light (visible, gamma rays, X-rays, and infrared). Other missions in this program include the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory(CXO). Spitzer is also a part of NASA's Astronomical Search for Origins Program, designed to provide information which will help us understand our cosmic roots, and how galaxies, stars and planets develop and form.


.....check out this site for some cool pics.

http://www.spaceref.com/redirecth.html?id=0&url=http://www.nasa.gov/

Check ou the James Webb Space Telescope (formly the Next Generation Telecscope.

http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Here's a cool pic; this thing is huge!!!

The orbit is interesting too; refered to as "L2"

...That's some fancy "rocketry" to get there.

hubble took another amazing pic. this time of galaxy M64- they are calling it the "black eye" galaxy

http://www.space.com/images/030522_beiter_m64_03.jpg

story here (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/image_of_day_030522.html)