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TOPIC: Infrared Telescope Facility

Blobrana

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Posts: 131433

Date: Feb 3 20:25 2010

Infrared Telescope Facility	Permalink

NASA astronomers have successfully demonstrated that a David of a telescope can tackle Goliath-size questions in the quest to study Earth-like planets around other stars. Their work, reported today in the journal Nature, provides a new tool for ground-based observatories, promising to accelerate by years the search for prebiotic, or life-related, molecules on planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. The scientists reported on a new technique used with a relatively small Earth-based telescope to identify an organic molecule in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size planet nearly 63 light-years away. The measurement revealed details of the exoplanet's atmospheric composition and conditions, an unprecedented achievement from an Earth-based observatory. The surprising new finding comes from a venerable 30-year-old, 3-meter-diameter telescope that ranks 40th among ground-based telescopes - NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Read more __________________

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