Comet Holds Building Block for Life
It seems that everything’s coming up life these days in astronomy. From the multitude of extrasolar planets in our galaxy, to the surprising findings about the history of water on Mars, to the vast, the hidden ocean under the surface of Europa, our ideas about how likely life might be in the Universe is quickly changing. And now and more evidence toward of the idea that comets may have have seeded the basic organic building blocks of life to an infant earth. Even within our solar system, is Earth really the only place that has harbored life?
Aug. 17, 2009 — An amino acid, one of the essential ingredients to life on Earth, has been found in a comet for the first time, NASA announced Monday.
Since amino acids have already been discovered in meteorites, this new development, reported at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C., suggests that early Earth had plenty of opportunities to have been seeded for life by extraterrestrial bodies.
