The Hubble Telescope has been instrumental at better shaping our understanding of the cosmos for almost 25 years. Recently, scientists and researchers have been using new advancements telescope technology to photograph actual planets orbiting distant stars.

The finding and cataloging of these so-called 'Exoplanets' is part of the search for planets that could potentially support human life or might already be home to some form of extraterrestrial life. 

According to a recent article by News Ledge, astronomers have begun using the Hubble Telescope to analyze the amount of water vapor in the atmospheres of exoplanets, with the idea that the presence of water would favor the possibility of life inhabiting one of these distant worlds.  

Apparently, the Hubble has recently analyzed three such exoplanets for water vapor, but each one came up "surprisingly dry," according to News Ledge. 

Based on an planetary origin theory, these three exoplanets were expected to contain a lot more water than they actually did.

A statement was released by the University of Cambridge's Niku Madhusudhan on the recent findings. Madhusudhan spoke on behalf of the university's Institute of Astronomy and stated, "Our water measurement in one of the planets, HD 209458b, is the highest-precision measurement of any chemical compound in a planet outside our solar system, and we can now say with much greater certainty than ever before that we've found water in an exoplanet. However, the low water abundance we have found so far is quite astonishing."

Perhaps this is proof that climate change is a universal phenomenon. 

But in all seriousness, these new findings are such that other scientists are beginning to question whether it is reasonable to expect to ever find water in abundance similar to that of our own solar system, elsewhere in space. 

The University of Maryland's Drake Deming released a statement regarding how astronomers may have to make such an adjustment to expectations with respect to finding water on exoplanets: "There are so many things we still don't know about exoplanets, so this opens up a new chapter in understanding how planets and solar systems form. The problem is that we are assuming the water to be as abundant as in our own solar system. What our study has shown is that water features could be a lot weaker than our expectations."

Ouch, Drake. Tell us how you really feel. The way scientists are able to search for water vapor in the atmospheres of exoplanets using the Hubble involves making use of what's called the "near-infrared spectrum."

Ground-based telescopes on our planet are disqualified from this process because the water vapor in our own atmosphere prevents terrestrial telescopes from resolving exoplanets accurately enough to judge their atmospheric water vapor content. 

So while perhaps astronomers may one day discover a planet similar enough to Earth to support life as we know it, it appears these latest three aren't it. And that's ok, because Interstellar is just a few months away.