For the first time, astronomers have observed the shattered remains of an asteroid that points to the potential for life in a dying solar system 150 light years away. The findings, which used data from NASA's Hubble and FUSE telescopes, as well as from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, were published this week in the journal Science and suggest that the huge amounts of water contained in the asteroid orbiting the exhausted white dwarf star GD 61 mean its planetary system could have contained Earth-like planets. Astronomers at the Universities of Cambridge and Warwick say this is the first time water and a rocky surface -- two building blocks of a habitable planet -- have been found together outside our solar system. Wet asteroids aren't just interesting because they show the presence of water in a solar system, but because they can actually act as the water-delivery system for a planet. For example, Earth was most likely a dry rock when it formed -- oceans would have come much later when water-rich asteroids crash-landed here, according to a release from the Keck Observatory. Read more http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105...eroids-point-to-far-flung-earth-like-planets/
