A team of researchers has made precise measurements of the water vapor present on three Jupiter-like planets outside our solar system. The results were not only disappointing but challenge current theories of how planets are formed.

The team used the Hubble Space Telescope to analyze the near-infrared spectra of three planets located between 60 and 900 light years away. All three planets, HD 189733b, HD 209458b, and WASP-12b, belong to a class called “hot jupiters” with an average temperature between 1600 and 4000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The analysis is conducted by collecting the light from the planets home star as the planet passes in front of and behind it. The light of the star is then subtracted from the total collected. Scientists then use spectroscopic analysis of the remaining light to measure elements, such as water, in the planets atmosphere.

In this case, what they found were water vapor levels 10 to 1000 times less than what they expected.

“The low water vapour levels are surprising. Our models predict a much higher abundance of water vapour, and so these results challenge our current understanding of planet formation. And they raise questions about our ability to identify water in an Earth-like exoplanet,” said Dr. Nicolas Crouzet of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, in a statement.

The core accretion theory of planet formation states that when a star forms a massive disk of hydrogen gas and dust remain around it. From that cloud of dust and gas planets slowly form over time as the gas and dust begin to stick together.

The theory predicts that once a planet has formed the most abundant element will be oxygen which would then mix with hydrogen and form water vapor in the planet’s atmosphere. The low levels of water vapor raise questions about our understanding of how planets form or about the process of analyzing the atmosphere of exoplanets.

“These very hot planets with large atmospheres, orbiting nearby stars, are the best possible candidates for measuring water levels. And yet the levels we found were much lower than expected. This shows just how challenging it could be to detect water on Earth-like exoplanets in our search for potential life elsewhere,” says Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.

The results of the analysis, published July 24, 2014 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters are especially disappointing in light of another study published just a few days ago. A study in the journal Astrobiology on July 21, from a team at the University of East Anglia demonstrated that active oceans are nearly essential to the existence of life.

Lower than expected water levels could make the task of finding habitable or inhabited worlds far more difficult.