March 14, 2008

J D Harrington Headquarters, Washington 202-358-5241 j d harrington@nasa gov

Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md 410-338-4514 villard@stsci edu

MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-058

HUBBLE DETECTS ORGANIC MOLECULE ON AN EXTRASOLAR PLANET

WASHINGTON - NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p m EDT on Wednesday, March 19, to report on the first-ever detection of the organic molecule methane in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star

Though the planet is too hot to support life as we know it, the finding demonstrates the ability to detect organic molecules spectroscopically around Earth-like planets in habitable zones around stars

Briefing participants are: - Dr Mark Swain, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif - Dr Sara Seager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

This unique discovery, made with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), will be featured in the March 20 issue of the journal Nature

To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact Ray Villard at 410-338-4514 or Cheryl Gundy at 410-338-4707 at the Space Telescope Science Institute by noon on March 19 for the call-in number and passcode At the start of the briefing, images and supporting graphics will be posted on the Web at:

http://hubblesite org/news/2008/11

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's Web site at:

http://www nasa gov/newsaudio

For more information about NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on the Web, visit:

http://www nasa gov/hubble

-end-

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