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Ancient Comet Fragments Found In Antarctic Snow

Posted by Soulskill on from the cool-and-collected dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos Magazine: "Two tiny meteorites recently recovered from Antarctic snow contain material dating back to the birth of our Solar System, and may provide clues about the delivery of organic matter to Earth. Researchers believe that these micrometeorites likely came from the cold, comet-forming outer regions of the gas and dust cloud that comprised the early Solar System, and sample its composition. Discovered in 2006, the particles measure less than 0.25 mm across and survived their journey through Earth's atmosphere relatively unscathed. More importantly, scientists found that they contain unusually high amounts of organic matter."

5 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Re:this theory again by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 5, Informative

    Organic materials are just a class of chemicals - nothing to do with life as such. By now, it is pretty clear from spectroscopic measurements that the universe is full of simple organic matter like methane, methanol, ethanol, acetic acid, simple amino acids and the like. So it is not that surprising that this comet fragments carry organics. They form all the time, all over the place. This is of course essential for the formation for life, but the availability of small organics is not the critical step.

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    Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
  2. Re:this theory again by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Informative

    It unfortunately doesn't appear to be freely available online anywhere, but you might be interested in this survey paper if you have access to a university library.

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  3. Re:hmmm by maxume · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not really a paradox, it just isn't an answer to how life originally arose.

    (It is perfectly consistent for life to have originated somewhere else and spread here)

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  4. You're confused a little by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Informative

    Organic matter != Life though. I'm not sure if Panspermia brought life to Earth or not, but the organic matter in comets isn't alive. It's just the building blocks that could potentally have been involved in life coming into being.

  5. Re:RUN! by reset_button · · Score: 3, Informative

    Run? We need to explore! I see the words "ancient" and "Antartica", and I think awesome chair weapon to fight off the Goa'uld. Of course, the ZPM is probably depleted...