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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."

6 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. this theory again by ILuvRamen · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There seems to be a disagreement about whether or not organic materials just were here, formed here, or were brought here by an outside source. This article seems to be leaning towards the organic meteor theory but here's a fun question: where did the material on the meteor come from then? The answer is usually "another planet" but then why couldn't the materials have formed here just as easily?

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  2. Megatron by ssentinull · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Transfomers got it wrong, he obviously landed in ANTarctica

  3. hmmm by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The panspermian theory seems to be a paradox. If organic matter came from somewhere else to here, how did it get to that somewhere else? And more importantly, how did it form?

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    1. Re:hmmm by cyberthanasis12 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And more importantly, how did it form?

      That's easy. When a star goes nova, it does nucleosynthesis, which means that carbon (and lithium and oxygen etc) are synthesized by helium, which has been synthesized by hydrogen.
      Now, Sun is third or fourth generation star, which means that it is made of leftovers of other stars which have gone nova (or supernova). Part of the staff of other stars was carbon.
      As Carl Sagan used to say, our bodies are made by star dust.

  4. Re:Preparing for 2012?? probably! by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Whoa, dude... Haven't had shrooms this potent for years! What's your source for the stuff?

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  5. Re:RUN! by AmonTheMetalhead · · Score: 2, Insightful

    America must be destroyed