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