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Nature 448, 143-145 (12 July 2007) | doi:10.1038/448143a; Published online 11 July 2007

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Extrasolar planets: Water on distant worlds

Heather A. Knutson1

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Is the presence of water a feature common to all gas-giant planets? The first convincing detection of water vapour in the atmosphere of such a planet from outside our Solar System indicates that the answer is yes.

Gas-giant planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in our own Solar System — generally form at large distances from their parent star. Here, radiation is less intense, and so water and other low-mass elements and compounds, such as methane, can be more easily accreted in the form of ices onto the newly formed protoplanet.

  1. Heather A. Knutson is in the Department of Astronomy, Harvard University, 60 Garden Street, MS 10, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
    Email: hknutson@cfa.harvard.edu

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