Every new discovery in space adds another piece to the puzzle scientists have been trying so hard to reconstruct for decades. The latest piece of information, and reason of hope for many, came from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The observations, as NASA put it, are an important step toward finding chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life.

Hubble sent new observations on a Jupiter-sized planet, called HD 189733b, situated 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula, which was discovered not long ago, in 2005. With the help of the previous observations from Spitzer and Hubble Telescopes, scientists have managed to establish two essential elements on the distant planet: water vapors in the planet’s atmosphere - identified in 2007 by the Spitzer Telescope, but also organic compound (methane) – confirmed earlier this year by Hubble observations.

In the most recent round of observations, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, used the Hubble Telescope’s near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer to study infrared light emitted from the planet. Their conclusion not only supports belief that there may be extraterrestrial life, but it also opens new possibilities in the study of distant planets.

In the first ever neat infrared emission spectrum obtained for an exoplanet, scientists have managed to identify both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. This was possible due to the fact that gases in the planet’s atmosphere absorb certain wavelengths of light from the planet’s interior, leaving a unique spectral fingerprint on the radiation from the planet that reaches Earth, Eric Smith, Hubble Space Telescope program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, pointed out.

Such observations are possible especially during eclipses, that is when planets such as HD 189733b pass in front and behind their planet stars. The eclipses allow scientists to subtract the light of the star alone from that of the planet and the star together. HD 189733b completes an orbit around its star in just a little over 2 days.

So far, what scientists know of the planet is that it is approximately the size of Jupiter, but with a mass 15 percent larger. Furthermore, they identified water vapors, methane and carbon dioxide, which are crucial elements that support life.

Unfortunately, this planet in particular is very unlikely to host life, since it is so massive and so hot (the temperatures in its atmosphere reach 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, approximately the same temperature as the smelting point of silver), but identifying all the elements necessary for life may be a proof that spectroscopy can be done on a cooler and potentially habitable Earth-sized planet orbiting a dimmer red dwarf-type star, as Mark Swain, research scientists at JPL, explained at one point.

The ultimate goal for scientists is to identify prebiotic molecules in the atmosphere of planets in the “habitable zones” around other stars, where temperatures are suitable for water to remain liquid, rather than freeze and evaporate, Swain continued.

Scientists are now looking forward to using the NASA James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2013. In a few years, they will be able to begin looking spectroscopically for biomarkers on terrestrial planets even bigger than our own.