Keck scientists find water vapor on distant planet

A team of international scientists using the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea has found water vapor in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size planet around a distant star. The planet is one of four gas giants known to orbit a star called HR 8799, 130 light-years from Earth. This is an artist’s rendering of the planetary system HR 8799 at an early stage in its evolution, showing the planet HR 8799c, a disk of gas and dust, and interior planets. The team, using the OSIRIS instrument fitted on the Keck II telescope, uncovered the chemical fingerprints of specific molecules, revealing a cloudy atmosphere containing water vapor and carbon monoxide. (Image courtesty of Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics; Mediafarm)