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News and Views
Nature 448, 143-145 (12 July 2007) | doi:10.1038/448143a; Published online 11 July 2007
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University Full-Professor (W3, Tenure Track)
- University of Münster
- Munster 48149 Germany
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- Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI); C / o National Institute of Immunology
- Delhi 110067 India
Extrasolar planets: Water on distant worlds
Heather A. Knutson1
Abstract
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.
- 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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