Habitable zones are planetary orbits around stars that are conductive to life as we know it on Earth. And, astronomers are searching for signs that indicate the possible presence of extraterrestial life on such exoplanets.

Hubble and other orbiting space telescopes can now be used for further research into the search for organic materials on exoplanets.

The three astronomers made their historic discovery used two instruments aboard the Hubble Space Telescopes. They used the Near Infrared Camera (NIC) and Multi-Object Spectrometer (MOS) on May 25, 2007, during five orbits of Hubble to observe the exoplanet HD 189733b.

The results of the discovery by Swain, Vasisht, and Tinetti will be published in the March 20, 2008 issue of the journal Nature. The title of the paper is “Methane present in an extrasolar planet atmosphere.” [Arxiv]

Additional information will be provided at a NASA media teleconference at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. Images and graphics for the conference will be provided along with audio.

Additional information can be found on the Web about the NASA Hubble Space Telescope.