Comet landing: Organic molecules detected by Philae

[webfact]

Comet landing: Organic molecules detected by Philae
By Paul Rincon
Science editor

(BBC) The Philae lander has detected organic molecules on the surface of its comet, scientists have confirmed.

Carbon-containing "organics" are the basis of life on Earth and may give clues to chemical ingredients delivered to our planet early in its history.

The compounds were picked up by a German-built instrument designed to "sniff" the comet's thin atmosphere.

Other analyses suggest the comet's surface is largely water-ice covered with a thin dust layer.

The European Space Agency (Esa) craft touched down on the Comet 67P on 12 November after a 10-year journey.

Dr Fred Goessmann, principal investigator on the Cosac instrument, which made the organics detection, confirmed the find to BBC News. But he added that the team was still trying to interpret the results.

It has not been disclosed which molecules have been found, or how complex they are.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30097648


-- BBC 2014-11-19

[WilliamCave]

Actual proof WOOOW

[ukrules]

It was fully expected that this kind of material would be detected.

Like this kind of thing from 5 years ago : http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17628-found-first-amino-acid-on-a-comet.html#.VGvaOsnzzKQ

Edited November 18, 2014 by ukrules

[Somtamnication]

Fantastical, indeed! Never thought alien life would be discovered in my lifetime.

[RustBucket]

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

Edited November 19, 2014 by RustBucket

[jaywalker]

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

I agree. Has to be life out there somewhere besides just Earth.

I recall hearing/seeing a documentary 25 or so years ago saying that the earth loses around 12,000 gallons of water a day via the atmosphere in to space, but not to worry, as it is constantly being replenished by shooting stars & such.

I thought that was pretty cool. There's a constant exchange & interaction going on with us & the great beyond.

And yeah, what you say about amino acids makes a lot of sense as well.

[RustBucket]

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

I agree. Has to be life out there somewhere besides just Earth.

I recall hearing/seeing a documentary 25 or so years ago saying that the earth loses around 12,000 gallons of water a day via the atmosphere in to space, but not to worry, as it is constantly being replenished by shooting stars & such.

I thought that was pretty cool. There's a constant exchange & interaction going on with us & the great beyond.

And yeah, what you say about amino acids makes a lot of sense as well.

Also it is a mathematically proven fact that the universe is expanding constantly at the speed of light.

With more expansion comes a larger space to exist.

There is a very interesting video about a googolplex and what would happen when the universe ever reaches one googolplex meters across. We will start to see repetitions. But if you think deeper into this, the universe would not have to wait till it reaches the length of googolplex meters, because it is almost certain that smaller size repetitions will occur all over the place.

One day there could certainly be a complete double of you somewhere else in the universe.

It's all mind-blowing stuff.

[Jungle Jim]

NO NO NO We are alone ! If we are not what about the Bible ?

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

[RNguy]

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

Amino acids are not found in strata of rock unless they were put there by plants. Amino acids ARE the building blocks of life. They are also the exclusive product of life and do not exist without a living source to provide them. The Organic compounds they have found on the comet are not as complex as amino acids. The definition of Organic in chemistry is still ambiguous. By one definition Methane (CH4) is organic since it contains carbon. Methane is found in the atmosphere of Jupiter - no big deal. Other definitions require that an organic compound contain linked carbon atoms to form a carbon chain such as is found in sugars or fossil fuels. So far the only source of carbon chains is the by-product of living systems. Scientists with the comet project are hoping to find complex carbon molecules so that they can fill the huge, enormous, gigantic, gaping-hole-question in the whole evolution theory: where did the organic compounds come from that led to spontaneous generation of life? It is kind of a chicken and egg question. If life requires organic compounds but organic compounds require previously existing life - that means that the first living thing had to be made by intelligent design OR it was an accident that resulted from ingredients that fell from the sky eons ago. The evolutionists are "praying" they find complex carbon chains in space because not finding them would absolutely devastate their theory. When you push the top evolutionists right to the wall about the beginning of the whole evolutionary story - they are forced to guess that the ingredients fell from the sky or else were placed here by amazingly advanced beings (and how is that so different from the advanced being that some call God?). Of course if these compounds for life came from comets and asteroids then we have to ask: so how did they get on the comet or asteroid? So the "solution" to the evolutionary quandary is really just a path to a much bigger conundrum. I have met some truly awe inspiring minds in science. People who make my paltry 145 IQ look retarded. They have all come to the conclusion that life does exist beyond the human sphere - and at least one of those beings is the one who created life on Earth. Call that being what ever you will, but if he has a preference as to what we call him - it would probably be a good idea for us to find that out. My Tee Rak and I have different ideas in that regard but I love her and respect her enough to join her in pushing Krathong into the water and walking around the Wat three times, and she joins me at church and we love to compare notes afterwards. We play together nicely. Evolutionists are like secular "Muslims" however. They do not play well with others and often hope to see those who do not agree with them in a headless state. Some of the vilest diatribes I have heard come from evolutionists who bully those who dare to question them about the roots of their doctrine. I wonder if my comments will generate any today?

[TheGhostWithin]

This is proof that transpermia has to be a serious consideration when scientists consider how life formed on earth.

It would be interesting to see if the molecules were carbon - a building block of life but fairly common, or if it was something similar.

Not the first time this happened, a comet hit earth a few years ago and organic matter was detected on that also. On a more contravention note, a testing unit on the mars rover also detected carbon matter; though this has basically been ignored (at least on a public level) by NASA.

Edited November 19, 2014 by TheGhostWithin

[canman]

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

Really! News to me, could you point me to a reference about any other sort of known life not from this planet please?

[Johpa]

People who make my paltry 145 IQ look retarded.

But clearly the same can not be said for your hubris.

[RustBucket]

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

Amino acids are not found in strata of rock unless they were put there by plants. Amino acids ARE the building blocks of life. They are also the exclusive product of life and do not exist without a living source to provide them. The Organic compounds they have found on the comet are not as complex as amino acids. The definition of Organic in chemistry is still ambiguous. By one definition Methane (CH4) is organic since it contains carbon. Methane is found in the atmosphere of Jupiter - no big deal. Other definitions require that an organic compound contain linked carbon atoms to form a carbon chain such as is found in sugars or fossil fuels. So far the only source of carbon chains is the by-product of living systems. Scientists with the comet project are hoping to find complex carbon molecules so that they can fill the huge, enormous, gigantic, gaping-hole-question in the whole evolution theory: where did the organic compounds come from that led to spontaneous generation of life? It is kind of a chicken and egg question. If life requires organic compounds but organic compounds require previously existing life - that means that the first living thing had to be made by intelligent design OR it was an accident that resulted from ingredients that fell from the sky eons ago. The evolutionists are "praying" they find complex carbon chains in space because not finding them would absolutely devastate their theory. When you push the top evolutionists right to the wall about the beginning of the whole evolutionary story - they are forced to guess that the ingredients fell from the sky or else were placed here by amazingly advanced beings (and how is that so different from the advanced being that some call God?). Of course if these compounds for life came from comets and asteroids then we have to ask: so how did they get on the comet or asteroid? So the "solution" to the evolutionary quandary is really just a path to a much bigger conundrum. I have met some truly awe inspiring minds in science. People who make my paltry 145 IQ look retarded. They have all come to the conclusion that life does exist beyond the human sphere - and at least one of those beings is the one who created life on Earth. Call that being what ever you will, but if he has a preference as to what we call him - it would probably be a good idea for us to find that out. My Tee Rak and I have different ideas in that regard but I love her and respect her enough to join her in pushing Krathong into the water and walking around the Wat three times, and she joins me at church and we love to compare notes afterwards. We play together nicely. Evolutionists are like secular "Muslims" however. They do not play well with others and often hope to see those who do not agree with them in a headless state. Some of the vilest diatribes I have heard come from evolutionists who bully those who dare to question them about the roots of their doctrine. I wonder if my comments will generate any today?

Sigh.....

So amino acids must come from plant life etc...?

So I suppose some of the finest minds in geology are wrong then.

Take a look from 33 minutes onwards, it will explain how the oldest and most unchanged sample of a meteorite was found to contain amino acids. As a matter of fact watch the whole video. It is very interesting and up to date. (A lot of older theory is constantly debunked as theory without evidence.... this is evidence based).

If it has to be put there by plants or other organic matter in the first place, then maybe the supernova that exploded to provide the materials for our solar system had a forest on it before it exploded, but I doubt that somehow..

The closest they have been able to gauge the age of the earth is 4,567,000,000 years old and they have actual proof (recent proof) that there were actually oceans present on the earth at 4,200,000,000 So quite early on in the scheme of things.

So you have water that is awash with minerals and amino acids like a big soup. The whatever happened, just simply the correct combination got together and decided to have a party and the first very basic bacterial life was formed. This produced stromatolite based coral which provided the last ingredient.... oxygen.

After that evolution took over.

But please be my guest and watch this video... I think everyone would like it and learn a lot from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90_683K74EA

[RustBucket]

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

Really! News to me, could you point me to a reference about any other sort of known life not from this planet please?

Damn canman.... sorry there... I meant to type 'galaxy'. Not solar system.... But then again, still possible, we haven't been to another planet yet.

[RustBucket]

People who make my paltry 145 IQ look retarded.

But clearly the same can not be said for your hubris.

IQ if 145?

It only takes an IQ of 90 to be able to know where to make a new paragraph.

[empireboy]

Considering that there are more than 100-200 billion GALAXIES beyond our own it in improbable to the point of ridiculous to imagine there wouldn't be "life" beyond Earth! A German super-computer estimates there could be as much as a galaxy for every star in our galaxy! That we are NOT alone, is a pretty safe bet!

[peterb17]

Oh No! Does this mean the planet earth is older than 6000 years and just maybe the panspermia theory has some credence?

Personally, I think the fact that we have managed to land something on a comet after a ten year journey is just truly amazing. ( also the fact that within a day 3BB put in a kilometre of cable to my house and got my Internet connected - and it's really fast)

[TPI]

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

Amino acids are not found in strata of rock unless they were put there by plants. Amino acids ARE the building blocks of life. They are also the exclusive product of life and do not exist without a living source to provide them. The Organic compounds they have found on the comet are not as complex as amino acids. The definition of Organic in chemistry is still ambiguous. By one definition Methane (CH4) is organic since it contains carbon. Methane is found in the atmosphere of Jupiter - no big deal. Other definitions require that an organic compound contain linked carbon atoms to form a carbon chain such as is found in sugars or fossil fuels. So far the only source of carbon chains is the by-product of living systems. Scientists with the comet project are hoping to find complex carbon molecules so that they can fill the huge, enormous, gigantic, gaping-hole-question in the whole evolution theory: where did the organic compounds come from that led to spontaneous generation of life? It is kind of a chicken and egg question. If life requires organic compounds but organic compounds require previously existing life - that means that the first living thing had to be made by intelligent design OR it was an accident that resulted from ingredients that fell from the sky eons ago. The evolutionists are "praying" they find complex carbon chains in space because not finding them would absolutely devastate their theory. When you push the top evolutionists right to the wall about the beginning of the whole evolutionary story - they are forced to guess that the ingredients fell from the sky or else were placed here by amazingly advanced beings (and how is that so different from the advanced being that some call God?). Of course if these compounds for life came from comets and asteroids then we have to ask: so how did they get on the comet or asteroid? So the "solution" to the evolutionary quandary is really just a path to a much bigger conundrum. I have met some truly awe inspiring minds in science. People who make my paltry 145 IQ look retarded. They have all come to the conclusion that life does exist beyond the human sphere - and at least one of those beings is the one who created life on Earth. Call that being what ever you will, but if he has a preference as to what we call him - it would probably be a good idea for us to find that out. My Tee Rak and I have different ideas in that regard but I love her and respect her enough to join her in pushing Krathong into the water and walking around the Wat three times, and she joins me at church and we love to compare notes afterwards. We play together nicely. Evolutionists are like secular "Muslims" however. They do not play well with others and often hope to see those who do not agree with them in a headless state. Some of the vilest diatribes I have heard come from evolutionists who bully those who dare to question them about the roots of their doctrine. I wonder if my comments will generate any today?

Nope! Don't think so, while your 'arguement' has value doesn't it just "Kick the can down the road " ?

[Chicog]

Considering that there are more than 100-200 billion GALAXIES beyond our own it in improbable to the point of ridiculous to imagine there wouldn't be "life" beyond Earth! A German super-computer estimates there could be as much as a galaxy for every star in our galaxy! That we are NOT alone, is a pretty safe bet!

There's an interesting discussion on the subject by Brian Cox in a documentary series called "Human Universe".

Well worth a watch and you can find it at the usual places.

PM me if you wish a torrent of data to head your way.

<wink>

Edited November 19, 2014 by Chicog

[RNguy]

As predicted, when threatened with facts, the high priests of evolutionism resort to personal attacks.

[RNguy]

I watched the video that was suggested. It totally ignores the work of Astrobiologists with NASA who determined experimentally that any amino acid found on a space rock would be destroyed by temperatures of only 550 degrees C. In the interests of full disclosure - Glycine was the only amino acid that exhibited the ability to sublimate (if heated to only 150 degrees C) and thus it is possible (remotely) that glycine could have been deposited in the atmosphere by falling rocks. This study does however show that ALL other amino acids are destroyed at temperatures of 550 C while meteors - even small ones - reach temperatures in excess of 1725 degrees C on their trip groundward and of course impact temperatures of some meteors rival the temperatures at ground zero of an atomic blast - sufficient to turn native sands into glass. It seems reasonable to deduce that any amino acids found in meteorites on earth are there by virtue of earthly contamination - not by origin.

I am still waiting for an explanation that stands up to scrutiny. Please do not mistake my intent as an effort to proselytize. I am not interested in converting any of you. I do find it irksome that evolutionists do proselytize and are willing to support their arguments with flawed science. They are also willing to ruin careers and otherwise "crucify" anyone who finds their doctrine wanting. If true organic compounds are found on space rocks, that still does not mean much although some will shout that it is proof positive. It only suggests that the Earth is not the only home of life - a concept I actually endorse.

As far as kicking the can down the road is concerned - I hope you will recognise that it is not me but evolutionists who do so when they propose that life here began via seeding by an alien intelligence, or by an extraterrestrial hail storm of chemicals that themselves are created by living systems.

[boomerangutang]

There's a photo of the comet (I don't have it handy) which shows it as a strange shape, something like a giant seahorse and poodle stuck at their butts. All that were hearing/seeing about this comet is exciting, and full commendations to all the engineers involved. These are the sorts of things I look forward to. Robots flying every which way and exploring the galaxy. People will probably follow, but a whole lot slower, as it takes an immense more support equip for people than for gizmos.

Anything that can be hit by meteors etc can hold organic life just like earth.

They bring water that is trapped in salt crystals tiny droplets at a time. These combine to form bodies of water that absorb into certain strata I believe which contain amino acids. the building blocks of life.

It is absurd and quite arrogant for some people to disbelieve that there is other life out there.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

The universe and even our solar system is absolutely teaming with life.

Really! News to me, could you point me to a reference about any other sort of known life not from this planet please?

It's conjecture (abundant life in the universe), but completely believable, even in the vicinity of our solar system.

[Chicog]

Do you mean this one that superimposed it on LA?

[boomerangutang]

is that its relative size to a large city. Wow, cool. It would be the ultimate sentence for a heinous crime, to get banished to a comet.

Actually, that depiction is similar but significantly different than the photo I saw (sorry, I can't find it right now to post). I think the photo was on NPR.org, so if someone were interested, he could search there. The photo I saw was more spindly than the one depicted in the L.A. photo, above.

[tw25rw]

It says organic molecules, not alien life. The universe is already known to have abundant organic molecules: methane for example.

[attrayant]

Amino acids are not found in strata of rock unless they were put there by plants. Amino acids ARE the building blocks of life. They are also the exclusive product of life and do not exist without a living source to provide them.

Not true. See the Miller-Urey experiment Edited November 22, 2014 by attrayant

[FritsSikkink]

As predicted, when threatened with facts, the high priests of evolutionism resort to personal attacks.

So the bible is stating facts:

The earth is flat

Talking snakes

Noah is 900 years old

He has a couple animals of each species confined in a boat for 90 days and they don't eat each other.

Earth is 6000 years old

Nuff said.