Discovery of planets - hoping to find life!

Data collected by NASA's orbiting Spitzer Space telescope on two Jupiter-like gas planets hundreds of trillions of kilometres away - one in the constellation of Pegasus and the other in the constellation of Vulpecula - point towards some vital evidences.

One of the planets had evidence of small sand-like particles, called silicates, in the atmosphere, sugesting it is wrapped in high, dusty clouds unlike any planet in our solar system. Spitzer observed for the first time enough light to figure out signatures of molecules in the atmospheres of planets outside our little one. It was deemed as a step in a long chain of events hopefuly leading to discovering life on some other planet.

These two planets - terrifically hot gas giants whizzing around their stars in alarmingly close orbits were considered to be unlikely to harbour life, presently. But scientists hoped to use similar techniques to scour smaller, rocky planets more like the Earth for indications of life, perhaps in the form of oxygen or possibly chlorophyll. The probability of water being there hidden by a thick layer of clouds, was not ruled out.

Finally, the 'present' must consider the time delay in getting the data - howmany lightyears of distance they are away etc.!

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