Recently there has been a lot of news about exoplanets. There was an article today in BBC reporting an exoplanet spotted 1500 light-years away from the Earth and similar to the ones in our solar system.
Exoplanet spotted like ones in our solar system
A month ago there was a report on a new ground-based method for detecting gases on planet surfaces outside our solar system. This particular report was on the detection of methane which would indicate the presence of carbon-based matter on the planet.
Exoplanet gas spotted above Earth
Our planet is no doubt sustained by an nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere but if we think outside this realm and from an astro-biological perspective ours may not be the only form of sustainable life. There may be biological entities on other planets that might depend on other carbon-based compounds for sustenance such as methane. The fact that this method is ground-based provides a great advantage in the fact that it is transferable to other ground-based telescopes. Considering these two reports together we come to the incredible conclusion that we now have means for not only spotting exoplanets but also detecting what substances they have on their surfaces. This is finally going towards the beginning that Carl Sagan had envisioned--of finding intelligent life on extraterrestrial surfaces.
Two really good books on exoplanets and their biology that I have personally enjoyed a great deal are:
The Life of the Cosmos by Lee Smolin
Buy it on Amazon
Exoplanets-Detection, Formation, Properties, Habitability Edited by John.W. Mason
Buy it on Amazon
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