December 15, 2006

'New Organics' found on 'strange' comet, Wild 2. More evidence for comets as the origin of life on earth.
posted by bobboggis 18 years ago
  • Calling them 'organics' is kind of deceptive, they're organic building blocks rather than what we would think of as organic materials. Nevertheless, the wild2 samples are turning everything on their heads as far as theories about the formation of the solar system & other things are concerned. I just keep chuckling, because when I was about 9 or 10, the theory of 'panspermia' (that seeds of life are planted on planets like earth from outer space via comets etc) propounded by Fred Hoyle & Chandra Wickramasinghe was regarded with little more respect in academic astrophysics than the ancient astronaut theory. Now, well.. now it's pretty much confirmed. Next, bootstraps origin of life theory!
  • Fascinating. And of course leads one to ask: Where did these comets acquire such an astonishment of riches in the first place? On how many worlds has life in some formed subsequently evolved? And yes, I will settle for speculative fiction until science has more definite answers.
  • Billions, bees. Billions. Where did the comets aquire the material? We are told that it emerges naturally as part of the process of galactic formation. All of the building-block chemicals & stuff that make up life are floating around out there. Somehow, somewhere, a catalyst process emerges that causes a bunch of minerals & chemicals to form organic compounds, amino & carboxylic acids - protein strains that, in the right environment, somehow give rise to the first primitive forms of life. This is a profound mystery that I'm sure we'll never learn the answer to. I hope not. The reason I mention 'bootstraps' is that this is the theory that in some age past, a spacefarer landed on a barren planet in a star's habitable zone, had a look round, planted a flag, then pissed off again. But on the 'straps' of his boots (or tentacle-covers, whathaveyou), teeny tiny organisms jumped off & colonised the barren rock, to be forbears of the life that emerges there a billion years later. Which, as you imply, makes one wonder where the bacteria that led to the emergence of life on the spacefarer's world originated from.. & the forbears of those.. & so on.
  • Very interesting, Homonk. However, as a general rule, I mistrust probes. It stems from a bad incident when I was a wee child...