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Ancient Comet Fragments Found In Antarctic Snow

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."

54 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. RUN! by PedoPope · · Score: 5, Funny

    re:"More importantly, scientists found that they contain unusually high amounts of organic matter." Just before he choked, fell to the ground, and turned into a multi-tentacled extra terrestrial and savagely attacked the audience.

    1. Re:RUN! by Xyrus · · Score: 4, Funny

      Can you please keep your hentai fueled Japanese tentacle fantasies to yourself?

      Thanks,
        The Managerment

      --
      ~X~
    2. 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...

    3. Re:RUN! by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Hentai? Sounds like H.P. Lovecraft to me.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re:RUN! by xerent_sweden · · Score: 1

      Only on Slashdot would this be moderated "Informative".

    5. Re:RUN! by wizardforce · · Score: 1

      You're forgetting that we also found a frozen ancient in the ice that was still infected with the plague that drove the ancients to Atlantis several million years ago.

      --
      Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
    6. Re:RUN! by martin-boundary · · Score: 1

      "More importantly, scientists found that they contain unusually high amounts of organic matter."

      Official breakdown of organic matter:

      22% crumpets
      37% butter
      34% strawberry jam
      7% tannin from Earl Grey tea.

      Conclusion: On the day of the solar system's initial installation, somebody was having breakfast.

    7. Re:RUN! by vegiVamp · · Score: 1

      Yes. Hentai Porn Lovecraft.

      --
      What a depressingly stupid machine.
    8. Re:RUN! by AmonTheMetalhead · · Score: 2, Insightful

      America must be destroyed

    9. Re:RUN! by laejoh · · Score: 1

      Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

    10. Re:RUN! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      "I think awesome chair weapon to fight off the Goa'uld."

      Just have them meet MicroSteve. Regardless of who loses, the humanity will win.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  2. 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?

    --
    Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
    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.

      --
      Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
    2. Re:this theory again by Ambiguous+Coward · · Score: 1

      ...why couldn't the materials have formed here just as easily?

      Because saying "panspermia" is much more fun in a naughty sort of way.

      --
      Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
    3. 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.

    4. Re:this theory again by MrMr · · Score: 1

      The organic materials on the meteors came from earth Mark I.
      Sheesh, everybody knows that.

  3. WOW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    These fragments are 6000 years old. Truly mind boggling.

    1. Re:WOW! by Nyder · · Score: 1

      I don't think 6000 means what you think it means.

      whoosh!

      --
      Be seeing you...
  4. Megatron by ssentinull · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Transfomers got it wrong, he obviously landed in ANTarctica

  5. 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?

    --
    The game.
    1. 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.
    2. Re:hmmm by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 1

      (You say "organic matter" but I'm assuming you mean "biological matter". "Organic" doesn't mean alive.)

      Originally, the idea was that life formed on a planet, once, and was blasted into space by meteor impacts, drifted to infect other planets. Rinse, repeat.

      These days, the originators are all fringe science woo-woo.

      A better modern form is the idea that prokaryotic life developed in the star-forming nebula that gave rise to our solar system. (Or even the one that begat the galaxy.) Lots of different places for weird chemistry, from gas, dust/ice grains, to planetesimals; with temperatures from near background to way-too-much, plus stars igniting and causing shockwaves which stir everything around. Ebbing and flowing for billions of years.

      You're right that it only defers the moment of origin. But it defers it by a bucketload.

      --
      Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
    3. Re:hmmm by sourcerror · · Score: 1

      It's not a paradox, but doesn't answer the question we're actually interested in: how does life come into existence.

    4. 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.

    5. Re:hmmm by somersault · · Score: 1

      Aside from the stupid music, this video is pretty interesting for explaining a possibility for the first few steps

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6QYDdgP9eg

      --
      which is totally what she said
    6. Re:hmmm by maxume · · Score: 1

      Is there a reason you chose to repeat what I said?

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    7. Re:hmmm by StuartHankins · · Score: 1

      Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

    8. Re:hmmm by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      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?

      I wouldn't say it was a paradox, more of a cop out.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  6. They don't own all those planes for nuttin' honey. by djupedal · · Score: 2, Funny

    > If organic matter came from somewhere else to here, how did it get to that somewhere else?

    FedEx - overnite.

  7. How do you find it by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Interesting
    When reading the summary, I wondered how they could find such a small thing. Here is what we find in the story:

    To find these sub-millimetre-scale particles, Duprat and colleagues melted and sieved untainted snow that fell near the French-Italian CONCORDIA station in central Antarctica between 1955 and 1970.

    I suppose since there isn't much dirt in Antarctica, any that you find has as good a chance of being a meteorite as anything else.

    --
    Qxe4
    1. Re:How do you find it by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      When reading the summary, I wondered how they could find such a small thing.

      Maybe they just looked for the yellow snow . . . ?

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  8. 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?

    --
    Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
  9. hey by arcite · · Score: 1, Funny

    Send Kurt Russel to investigate!

  10. 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.

    1. Re:You're confused a little by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's just the building blocks that could potentally have been involved in life coming into being.

      Or what's left of life after being boiled and frozen...

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  11. It's turtles all the way by mangu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Organic matter can mean a lot of different things. Simple organic molecules may form in the gas clouds in space which give origin to planetary systems.

    More complex molecules are a different thing, many of those require liquid water to form. The most plausible answer is that compounds such as methane were formed in space and accreted into earth and the other planets.

    Then chemistry in the earth atmosphere and oceans built those into more and more complicated structures until life began.

  12. WTF? by KharmaWidow · · Score: 1

    How does one find a grain of sand in the snow of a polar ice cap AND figure out that it is from outer space!?

  13. How big?!? by marmaladeboy · · Score: 1

    Makes you wonder how in the world they ever found them.

  14. I dunno what the hell's in there by catmistake · · Score: 1

    but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is.

    I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won.

  15. Incidentally by sonicmerlin · · Score: 1

    The particles in my body date back to the big bang.

  16. Re:Space Jizz by MrShaggy · · Score: 1

    Every-time I look at you I jizz my pants

    --
    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
  17. Re:Nah, not really a problem, no matter the detail by geekboy642 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You're in MORE danger of proving the Bible right in MORE ways than disproving it.

    This is science. We disprove things for a living. Positive proofs are for math. There will never be a scientific discovery that proves the Bible is, like you imply, a completely true book. Instead, there will continue to be discovery upon discovery that--no matter what the book's place as a fantastic piece of history, the collected stories and an artifact of the gestalt of a bronze-age-era tribe--simply proves the asserted facts as untrue.

    Ya know, if it's all random...nothing matters.

    If the assertion that upon your death you will experience an eternity of unchanging consciousness doesn't scare the ever-loving shit out of every sane person here, the belief that this looming eternity is the only reason to even go on living should. You and I are the most advanced product of a process that has been ongoing for trillions of years. We are Star Stuff made into a thinking and reasoning being. My species is the ultimate in local technology: There is literally nothing superior to the noble homo sapiens. Science is no more than the process of asking how that happened and trying to answer that question. Your neo-barbarian cult papers over every question with "Ghost man inna sky dunnit."

    There are dozens of proofs in the Bible;

    This is enough of a weasel phrase that nearly any passage could fit it, and it's barely worth considering. But how about this: I assert that you cannot find one single true statement of unambiguous scientific fact in the Bible that goes against the contemporary prevailing beliefs of the society that produced it. Even something as simple as referring to an orbit would qualify, but I'm certain that even that mild of a truth is missing from the Bible.

    Call me if you see a light-speed capable ship. I have a life to live.

    Yes. You have a life to live. But you're expecting heaven as soon as you die, and here you are suffering through the drudgery of day-to-day life like a sucker. Serious question: Why do Christians not en masse undertake suicidally hazardous activities? Surely offing yourself would be a stronger message than the currency your kind uses today, like pedophile priests, abusive pastors, shouting TV charlatans, and proven fraudulent faith "healers".

    --
    Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
  18. Re:Nah, not really a problem, no matter the detail by tyrione · · Score: 1

    Where the hell do you get Trillions of years? You're 100 times off and more.

  19. Re:Preparing for 2012?? probably! by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

    Well, I certainly know who the dealer was.
    I heard it was some dude’s pop, Ben Addict (16).

    Must be tough to have a child at that age. But I also heard he likes kids very much, so I think he’s OK with it.

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  20. Doctor Who? by SheeEttin · · Score: 1

    Is... is that a Doctor Who reference?

  21. Imagine by cavebison · · Score: 1

    Reading this, I started wondering why no religions form around new scientific discoveries about the origin of life. Widespread spiritual beliefs and offshoots still seem to form in these latter days, like Scientology, but none seem to form around scientific indications of the origin of life. Scientology, for example, prefers to believe in aliens - something unproven - rather than, say, panspermia, which is a more likely origin story.

    Why aren't there worshippers of great panspermia being, whose seed rains down on worlds from on high? Or a god who lives behind the curtain of quantum universes? There are many scientific concepts that would accommodate all the god-like powers we wish to attribute to a thinking being that somehow gives a rats about us.

    But religions seem to prefer completely inane explanations involving talking animals and other implausible events. So many amazing discoveries made in recent history about where life came from, and nobody wants to worship them.

  22. What kind of meteorite? disappointing by jasper_amsterdam · · Score: 1

    "the particles measure less than 0.25 mm across"; so how the hell am I supposed to turn that into my epic sword?

    --
    Let's put the genes back in Genesis.
  23. Re:Preparing for 2012?? probably! by FreakyGreenLeaky · · Score: 1

    Christ, you must be one of those boring smelly people at parties that everyone tries to avoid.

  24. Re:Preparing for 2012?? probably! by 3seas · · Score: 1

    not mine, but there is one at the center of our galaxy.

  25. Re:Preparing for 2012?? probably! by 3seas · · Score: 1

    The only proof there is, is that there are those who don't like my presence on the internet, anywhere on the internet. And that is the findings of mindspring investigation into complaints and the hacking of their server to make it look like I was complaining about myself. But they saw past they attempt.

    There is a reason for the title "Anonymous Coward" and ultimately what are you really attacking here? NOVA and a research Scientist at the LHC?

    The article is about organic matter found on earth but identified as coming from space. So we look at space...and some have a problems with that.
    Maybe its a privacy thing, what is between their ears.

  26. Re:Preparing for 2012?? probably! by 3seas · · Score: 1

    someone should mod you up seeings how relevant to the article your post is.

  27. comet found in arctic snow by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    Also in the news:

    Bear poop found in the wood.

  28. Re:Preparing for 2012?? probably! by 3seas · · Score: 1

    And you obviously are someone who thinks a mod score is what you are suppose to do to the poster modded.

    try writing something relevant to the article. It may help hide your otherwise obvious intent.

    Let me help: What do you suppose is going to happen when the LHC experiments advance our knowledge of what happened one millionth of a second after the big bang?
    Play catholic in denial (history repeating it self.... Galileo).

    Or maybe you have some idea as to where the organic matter came from, before it was in space to fall here?

  29. Re:Preparing for 2012?? probably! by FreakyGreenLeaky · · Score: 1

    lol.

    My, my, you certainly are a plank. You strike me as a follower of Blossom Goodchild et al.