Rosetta’s comet
Scientists have discovered ingredients regarded as crucial to the origins of life in a comet the European Space Agency (ESA) has been probing for two years.
- Scientists have discovered these key organic compounds in Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (also known as Rosetta’s comet), bolstering the notion these celestial objects delivered such chemical building blocks for life long ago to Earth and throughout the solar system.
- With this, scientists now say possible impact of small bodies on a forming Earth drastically increased the concentration of life-related chemicals by impact on a closed water body.
Details:
- The ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft made several detections of the amino acid glycine, used by living organisms to make proteins, in the cloud of gas and dust surrounding the comet.
- Glycine was previously discovered in 2006 in samples taken from comet Wild-2 during a flyby, but “possible terrestrial contamination” made analysis tough. Glycine is commonly found in proteins and phosphorus is a key ingredient of DNA.
- Scientists have also found other organic compounds, including hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide on the comet.
- Rosetta’s findings are important because of the unchanging nature of celestial bodies such as comets. In contrast, Earth has gone through some dramatic changes since its formation billions of years ago.
Rosetta:
Rosetta was launched on 2 March 2004 on an Ariane 5 rocket and reached the comet on 6 August 2014, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet. Rosetta took off from Earth 10 years ago carrying Philae and traveled 6.4 billion miles before arriving at the comet.
