Rosetta probe Philae discovers organic molecules on comet

[Quixote1818]

Source: Wall Street Journal

By
Gautam Naik


Updated Nov. 17, 2014 6:03 p.m. ET

83 COMMENTS

The probe that landed on the surface of a comet has discovered organic molecules, the most rudimentary building blocks of life, according to the German agency involved in the mission.

An instrument aboard the Philae lander detected the molecules after “sniffing” the comet’s atmosphere. An organic compound is one whose molecules contain the carbon atom, the basis of life on earth.

Scientists are analyzing the data to see whether the organic compounds detected by Philae are simple ones—such as methane and methanol—or a more complex species such as amino acids, the building blocks for proteins. A drill on Philae also obtained some material from the comet’s hard surface, but data about organic molecules from that experiment have yet to be fully analyzed.

Comets contain some of the most pristine materials in the solar system, dating to about 4.5 billion years ago. Previous studies have suggested that comets forge organic material in their dusty atmospheres.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/rosetta-probe-directly-discovers-organic-molecules-on-comet-1416256078

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If this pans out it is perhaps the greatest discovery in the past 50 years if not our lifetime. This is a big f...ing deal in my opinion!

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. they may be on the cusp of discovering how we got here....

[burrowowl]

2. Yeah Comet Hopper!

Hope it can awake when nearer to the sun!

[mindwalker_i]

3. I just hope this pisses off the religious right

God loves comets. You? Not so much.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. That was my thought...

When the Reverend Wingnut hears the Hand of God was a comet, he'll be running around insanely showing us the Finger of God.

[2naSalit]

6. *snort!*

Love it. I was thinking similar thoughts myself.

[starroute]

9. Though actually ...

You just reminded me of some planetarium show I saw as a little kid where they told us comets were once literally seen as the finger of God.

Well, why not?

[Javaman]

19. naaa, they have an excuse for everything...

they will justify it by saying the devil put the organic material there to confuse real christians.

anything they can't explain is the work of the devil.

didn't you get the memo?

[mindwalker_i]

20. Oh yeah, I forgot about that

God put them there to "test our faith." I wonder what the pass/fail conditions are.

[CoffeeCat]

29. hahahha!

Love that. Thanks for the chuckle.

[gcomeau]

5. While it is cool..

...the greatest discovery in 50 years is seriously overplaying it considering we already knew about complex organic molecules in space... and on comets...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17628-found-first-amino-acid-on-a-comet.html#.VGrebMvTnqA

[zeemike]

7. I think the greatest discovery is yet to come.

But what is more notable is they did not find a dirty snowball...and it's shape suggests something quite different.
And those two things suggest that the electric universe theory has some legs.

[robbob]

8. It's the Green Slime!!!!

[ZombieHorde]

12. Yes!

So awesome!

[Quantess]

10. Great, let's send the Koch bros there

to try and make a go of living there.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. They'd hear "carbon", think "coal" and think it was great.

[C Moon]

11. This was so great to read. Thanks!

[imthevicar]

13. Origin of Life 1. Life Came From Other Planets. Myth of the Organic Soup & Abiogenesis

&feature=related

[Turk 182]

36. Life only comes from Life? Really?

While I don't know weather or not life on Earth was seeded from the stars, I do know a logical fallacy when I see one.
This whole "life can only come from life" statement begs the question. So, OK, if life only comes from other life, how was the first life created? It doesn't matter how far back you go, at some point there was no life, then there was. So somewhere, somewhen, things that were not alive became alive. If not "Primordial Organic Soup", than what and how? Your choice: 1- God, 2-Life, like God, has always existed, and 3-back to the Organic Soup + lightening. I vote for 3.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. This could prove life is plentiful throughout the universe.

[maxrandb]

16. They found Spock? n/t

[n2doc]

17. It's great, but not entirely unexpected

Certain types of meteorites contain complex organics, including amino acids. Meteorites are nothing more than tiny (or sometimes, big) comets and asteroids that hit the Earth. So we know they are out there.

We also have detected complex organics in other places in the universe.

The big issue is how they got organized into life. And if that organization has happened elsewhere.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. *Simple* carbon compounds are widespread, but have nothing to do with life.

This is rather like finding sand and calling it "the rudiments of semiconductor manufacture". It might be, but chances are overwhelmingly against it.

Carbon is not a particularly rare element. It is a reactive element, so it's usually found in combination with other elements, and **ALMOST ANY COMPOUND CONTAINING CARBON IS LABELED AN 'ORGANIC COMPOUND'*** by convention. "Organic" in colloquial usage means "associated with a living organism"; in scientific usage it means "contains carbon", with only very simple compounds like CO2, CO, and metal carbides being excluded. Simple organic compounds like methane, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, even methanol, are not evidence of life or even the probability of life. It just means that carbon reacted with whatever was present, and that usually includes hydrogen (the most abundant element in the universe) and oxygen (which forms particularly strong bonds with carbon).

I've never understood the attraction of the hypothesis that life originated elsewhere. If such a thing had occurred, it would be fundamentally impossible to prove. And it only "begs the question" -- if you ask "where did life come from ?" and the answer is "somewhere else", then you have to ask, "well, how did it originate *there*?" and you can't answer that, because you can't investigate "there". Frankly, it seems like more of a hopelessly romantic -- even magical -- notion than a testable scientific hypothesis, but for some reason, it's become en vogue (again -- *sigh*) among so-called science journalists and won't go away, despite a paucity of evidence and a complete absence of even remotely unambiguous evidence. Frankly, it just seems to pander to a public appetite for romance over reason.

[AndroBaby]

21. 100%

About time someone told the truth, thank you!

[brightone]

22. Amazing they were able to land on it

I think what they have done is fantastic,when you think it took years for it to reach the comet,and to think that one day man will be able to live on it,I wonder it there will be jobs going on it?

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Another discovery: the comet is so hard, their hammer broke when they used the "desperate mode"

We also know that the MUPUS instrument attempted to hammer into the surface to use its sensors to gauge the comet's temperature. But underneath some "fluffy" material, was some very hard stuff indeed.

MUPUS scientists tried each of the hammer's three power settings - and after failing to penetrate the surface using those, proceeded to a "secret" fourth setting. This setting, nicknamed "desperate mode", broke the hammer.

Nevertheless, the exercise suggests the surface of the comet may have a tensile strength approaching that of sandstone.

That in itself may be a significant scientific discovery, because it's a far cry from the softer consistency some have envisaged for these "dirty snowballs" - thought to be relics from the formation of the Solar System.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30082878

[FSogol]

24. I've been on glaciers that were so cold and hard that my titanium ice axe bounced off.

Scary times when the crampons don't find purchase.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. The 'approaching sandstone' strength claim may be a bit misleading

Their tweets said:
"Results (15) Surface must be >2 MPa hard! The comet remains surprising bizarre and uncooperative"
"Terrestrial analogues: Sandstone has about 5-15MPa, Granite 5-20MPa Tensile strenght"
https://twitter.com/philae_mupus
Maybe shale is a better comparison - given here as 2-10 MPa.

[Feral Child]

26. Have to admit

I'm hoping they find a shell.

[mikeysnot]

27. This whole mission

is incredible!

[cheapdate]

28. Carbonaceous meteorites have been known for centuries.

Recent scientific electron microscope imaging of carbonaceous meteorites have found what appears to be unmistakable fossilized life forms. I was blown away by the papers on the subject. I don't know why this isn't bigger news.

http://journalofcosmology.com/JOC21/PolonnaruwaRRRR.pdf

http://www.pnas.org/content/108/34/13995.abstract

[Quixote1818]

30. Holy Shit!

This is mind blowing cool! Thanks for sharing! I need to investigate this more and find out why it isn't front page news?

[Quixote1818]

31. Just fround this

Sounds like it could be from Earth.

[Quixote1818]

34. Looks like that paper was torn to bits buy the scientific community

[cheapdate]

35. The Journal of Cosmology is not "mainstream",

although it is serious and the editor-in-chief is (or was) Rudy Schild, a Harvard astronomer.

Here is another article from the journal, "Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites":

http://www.panspermia.org/hoovermeteorites.pdf

This was the first one I saw several years ago. It was the first time I learned about carbonaceous meteorites, which are very real.

Many mainstream scientists dismiss Hoover's claim to have found fossilized cyanobacteria in CI1 carbonaceous meteorites -- positing that the samples were likely contaminated.

Either way, carbonaceous meteorites are remarkable in themselves.

[olddots]

32. big deal

Haven't we all snorted some comet once or twice ?

[Monk06]

33. So we are made of star stuff. Carl Sagan was right.