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Bus-sized Meteorite Gives Clues To Earth's Origin
This unnamed correspondent was one of the first to note this article: "Orginally posted here, scientists are looking at fragments of a meteorite that came to Earth in the Canadian Yukon. It's carbon-rich, and may contain clues about early life." The meteorite made a fiery appearance over the Yukon in January, and the fragments which are so interesting were recovered by a Canadian named Jim Brock, who gave them up for study by scientists from the University of Western Ontario. Why so exciting? As the article explains, "Preliminary tests of the pristine material find that it is loaded with organic molecules of the type that some experts have suggested could have been the original raw materials for the formation of life on Earth."
Did anyone check if Magneto is still in his cage?
"Preliminary tests of the pristine material find that it is loaded with organic molecules of the type that some experts have suggested could have been the original raw materials for the formation of life on Earth."
Original materials for life in The Rock? Oh no! We're all descended from a professional wrestler! Evolution is true! You smell what The Rock is cookin'?
Mas vale cholo, que mal acompañado.
Actually, UV radiation is harmful to most organic molecules since it is of sufficient energy to break many of the bonds which hold the molecules together. That is also why it is harmful to us (in the most fundamental sense).
Astronomers have found organic molecules in space (spectroscopic methods), and when they do they only find them in situations where they are shielded from higher energy electromagnetic radiation. Things like the insides of dust clouds make for good organic incubators since the outside layers absorb most of the radiation emitted from nearby stars. Mind you, they never really find anything too complex (mostly just basic organic molecules) but it does give some insight into how chemistry works on the interstellar scale.
UBU
Well, I actually work for the research group at UWO that was in charge of this. Here's the website.
The type of reasoning employed by such otherwise respected "scientists" such as Fred Hoyle in proposing that the origin of life was not on the Earth, but was instead in outer space, is fundamentally flawed and should not be taken seriously.
What they always seem to forget is that in those days the Earth's atmosphere was a lot different than it was today, and that the ozone layer did not exist. Hence, the Earth's surface and "atmosphere", such as it was, was a place where dangerous UV radiation had free range, and UV radiation at these levels is inimical to the presence of organic matter.
Any organic matter entering Earth's atmosphere at that time would have been destroyed by the UV radiation, and meteorites would have been sterile when they hit the Earth. I've yet to see a single theory that takes this into account, and I think that an extra-terrestrial genesis is just another piece of pseudo-science that will become a note in scientific history books in years to come.
At the end of the day we don't need to invoke mysterious agents from the stars to explain the start of life on Earth. We already have both religious and scientific explanaitions that satisfy all rational criteria for the origin of life.
It claims that the building blocks for the formation of life may have come from meteors, not life itself. This means that the carbon, hydrocarbons, and possibly even more complex compounds like amino acids came from outer space. Then, here on earth they spontaneously formed into whatever happened to be the first form of life.
I don't see why this should surprise anyone. The earth itself was formed by millions of meteors, asteroids, and specks of space dust coalescing into a big ball. If you really think about it, everything on the earth is made of atoms and molecules that, way way back, came from space.
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--Scott Adams
Worry about where it's going. :-) (I can see this happening in ten or twenty years btw..)
http://www.malepregnancy.com
http://www.genochoice.com
(I thought the links were pretty funny. :-))
-- Talonius
My reality check bounced.
Someone earlier talked about UV light destroying organic matter. It might be harmful to humans - but organic matter itself?
Organic matter basically means the chains-of-carbon-atom type molecules. It doesn't mean living matter. Gasoline is an organic compound. So is methane, ethane, butane, propane, heptane etc. Ethanol (C2H5OOH, common alcohol) is organic matter. Methylethylketone (MEK, commonly used as solvent, cleaning agent or paint thinner) is organic matter. None of these things alone are living or about to spring to life. In fact, gasoline is very toxic, but it's still an organic compound. To briefly summarize, organic chemistry centres around carbon-based chemistry: not necessarily the chemistry of life.
It is the long carbon chain molecules that make life possible. What I expect they have found in this meteorite are long-chain carbon molecules - not microbes or anything like that. Even so, this is still a very interesting find.
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What would have happened if the Tunguska event of 1908 had happened 2 hours later? Boom, in the middle of Moscow... Here's some statistics; whether they comfort you or scare you is all in how you look at things. There are probably about 1000 >1km asteroids that cross earth orbit. One of those hits us, on extreme average, every 300,000 years or so. You might be interested in reading this. Also, this place has a lot of good info and links about meteorites, impacts, and the like.
But you've gotta think... between airbursts and small impacts, we're bombarded pretty heavily already. All precautions allowed by our level of technology are being taken; if a meteorite hit us tomorrow, there's not a single damn thing we can do about it. Worrying about it is as pointless (even less so) than worrying about tripping over a sidewalk crack and breaking your neck. If you spend every spare minute thinking about it, yes, you'll be a paranoid wreck. So don't.
Of course, some people (Arthur C. Clarke among others) think it'll take a major impact in a populated area to unite the planet... The problem is it could happen tomorrow.. or 10,000 years from now. We just don't know. (of course, because I said that, and because today's Friday the 13th, I'll probably get hit by one on the way to work)
End of lesson. You may press the button.
You mean we're all CANADIAN??!!
;)
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