Life's Secrets From A Comet's Tail

An anonymous reader wrote to mention a Guardian report on the return trip of the Stardust mission, which has snatched material from the tail of a passing comet. From the article: "Scientists are particularly interested in comets because they believe they are rubble left over from making the solar system, which later played a profound role in the development of Earth. They probably delivered most of the water for Earth's oceans and bombarded our planet with complex organic compounds that could have been crucial to the evolution of life here. For these reasons, researchers have sought a source of comet molecules and designed Stardust to provide it." Wow, this thing has been out there a long time. When I Googled to make sure this wasn't a dupe, I ran across CmdrTaco's post about the Stardust probe entering the comet's tail - almost exactly two years ago.

Comments

Hand of God or Comet Dust?

[CrazyJim1]

I have intense religious experiences on a frequent occurance(yes, even ones that are more pleasurable than sex), and just had one this morning. Not only is God powerful, but he's also very nice, and makes for a pleasant friend. Now I wouldn't want to get in a pure scientist's way of finding out what other people already know. But there are a lot of awesome reasons that you should learn about God. Watch me get modded down when I didn't even dis science at all. In fact I brought a 'secret' of the universe to the table. Anyone who enjoys pleasure, and a healthy life should seek God.

Re:Hand of God or Comet Dust?

[FinestLittleSpace]

Are you for real? You are just PRECIOUS!

Re:Hand of God or Comet Dust?

[Anonymous Coward]

On your web page you cite Isiah 53 as a prophecy of the coming of Christ.

There are several promblems with this.

Firstly, the 53d chapter of Isiah is part of a series reminding us that the Lord loves those who are in troubled times, not just the rich. 53 asks "to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?" and goes to describe a man punished for other peoples crimes. Chapter 54 says to a childless widow, "thy Maker is thine husband" and that "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee" etc etc, and other words of comfort. Chapter 55 has more messages of hope, 56 says "neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;" and etc etc, through several more chapters. None of this is prophesy, it simply says to suffering people that the Lord still cares for them.

Secondly, the 53d chapter of Isaiah doesn't describe the story of Jesus very well. It says, "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth" but Jesus was not oppressed and afflicted UNTIL he opened his mouth. It says "he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death" but there were no rich people buried in that empty cave. It says "he was despised, and we esteemed him not", and you can only take that to mean Jesus if you admitt that Mark/Luke/etc made up the parts about crowds greating him with palm leaves when he entered Jerusalem. No mention is made of miracles or healing.

Thirdly, it's not prophesy because Jesus never really did come. None of the New Testament books were written down until 400 years after the alledged events, they contradict each other, the whole story seems to be an amalgam of Persian (the three kings, gifts, and star) jewish (the messiah part) and an older cult of a god who accepted the punishment for our sins so we didn't have to. This is not to say that it is not one of the greatest spirtual and ethical amalgamations ever -- I am a Christian -- but I am not a cultist, and I know that my religion unlike many is a historical religion, based on things that really happened. If the things that really happened were that some smart and some politically motivated people made up a bunch of stuff, then you have to accept that.

Oh, and by the way, the world was not created only 6,000 years ago and we did evolve from monkeys. If you believe otherwise then you are no better than a Heaven's Gate suicide cultist, except you spend your whole life committing suicide instead of doing it all at once.

Re:Boo!

[TubeSteak]

Snatch
An American Tail

btw- yes I searched google for snatch+tail and no, none of the first 10 results were porn-related.

Thought I'd get that out of the way

Re:Duping

[jmp_nyc]

But this one is so much different. It beats the posters to the punch by admitting to being a dupe up front.

Is it okay for dupes if the poster is up front about it being a dupe? Perhaps there should be a new category just for dupes. ;-)
-JMP

Re:what ever happened...

[lubricated]

That's not exactly correct.
The genesis project was a program designed to grant life where there is none.
It was doomed by the use of unstable protomatter.

Stardust sample brought Google addiction?

[BadassJesus]

"When I Googled to make sure.."

I am amazed how much even some .org people still hype Google. It's no longer business honeymoon It's like some prick on CSS... head-shot, head-shot, "Killing Spree", head-shot, head-shot, head-shot "Unstoppable", head-shot, head-shot, head-shot, "Godlike". Altavista.com, Hotbot.com anybody anymore ?