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Herschel Space Observatory Finds Precursors of Life In Orion

Posted by kdawson on from the but-not-as-we-know-it dept.

ogre7299 recommends an announcement out of Caltech on a milestone for HIFI, the Herschel Space Observatory's Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared. "The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed the chemical fingerprints of potential life-enabling organic molecules in the Orion Nebula, a nearby stellar nursery in our Milky Way galaxy. ... This detailed-spectrum, obtained with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) — one of Herschel's three innovative instruments — demonstrates the gold mine of information that Herschel-HIFI will provide on how organic molecules form in space. The spectrum, one of the first to be obtained with HIFI since it returned to full health in January 2010 following technical difficulties, clearly demonstrates that the instrument is working well. ... [The HIFI instrument had previously been offline since] August 2009 when HIFI experienced an unexpected voltage spike in the electronic system, probably caused by a high-energy cosmic particle, resulting in the instrument shutting down. On 14 January 2010, HIFI was successfully switched back on using its spare electronics, with science observations commencing on 28 February."

3 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Reverse optical psychology by moteyalpha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know if they have thought of this, but it seems that what is not seen has more meaning than what is seen. If I had the data, I would look to see if the absorption spectrum was different at the primary frequency of the solar emissions and would indicate to me that life was present. I would assume that inorganic materials would have an absorption spectrum which was different from organic life as it uses this energy to manufacture itself. It would seem that this would be generally true in the overall spectrum of the universe and like the cosmic background measurements there should be a signature of the universe without life and one that indicates life. Just a thought.

  2. Re:Nuke it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    pedant:
    are = The second-person singular and plural forms of the verb "to be",
    our = Our is the possessive determiner of the personal pronoun "we".
    Rrr = What a pirate or old sea captain says.

  3. Re:So that's where he went! by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    He went in an attack ship, but it caught fire. I've seen it.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."