Free Republic

The Hypatia stone, as it is known, is not only extraterrestrial in origin. It contains micro-mineral compounds not known to occur anywhere on Earth, not found in any other meteorites, and not known to occur anywhere in the Solar System. It's a discovery that raises some questions about the formation of the Solar System. Subsequent analysis revealed that the diamond-filled stone was not from any known comet or meteorite - its combined features were unique among known extraterrestrial materials. One hypothesis proposed that it might be a fragment of comet nucleus, shocked on impact, and another found that it was...

WASHINGTON - Scientists taking their first "sniffs of air" from planets outside our solar system are a bit baffled by what they didn't find: water. One of the more basic assumptions of astronomy is that the two distant, hot gaseous planets they examined must contain water in their atmospheres. The two suns the planets orbit closely have hydrogen and oxygen, the stable building blocks of water. These planets' atmospheres — examined for the first time using light spectra to determine the air's chemical composition — are supposed to be made up of the same thing, good old H2O. But when...