1239
hours. Some real science news today.
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BBC Science
and Environment
18 November
2014 Last updated
at 11:48 ET
Comet
landing: Organic molecules detected by Philae
By Paul
Rincon
Science editor, BBC News website
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.
Philae
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.
But the
results are likely to provide insights into the possible role of comets in contributing
some of the chemical building blocks to the primordial mix from which life
evolved on the early Earth.
Preliminary
results from the MUPUS instrument, which deployed a hammer to the comet after
Philae's landing, suggest there is a layer of dust 10-20cm thick on the surface
with water-ice underneath.
The ice
would be frozen solid at temperatures encountered in the outer Solar System -
MUPUS data suggest this layer has a tensile strength similar to sandstone.
Scientists
had to race to perform as many key tests as they could before Philae's battery
life ran out at the weekend.
A key objective was to drill a sample
of "soil" and analyse it in COSAC's oven. But, disappointingly, the
latest information suggest no soil was delivered to the instrument.
Selected and edited from BBC
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1240
hours. This news, to me, reinforces the theory of Panspermia.
** **
Panspermia is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe. . .
. Panspermia proposes that microscopic life forms that can survive the effects
of space. . . . If met with ideal conditions on a new planet's surfaces, the
organisms become active and the process of evolution begins. Panspermia is not
meant to address how life began, just the method that may cause its
distribution in the Universe.
Selected
and edited from Wikipedia
You
are excited by the prospects because it is a confirmation that life may more
than likely exist elsewhere in the universe. – Amorella
Carol
has errands so you find yourself waiting at Kroger’s on Tylersville after
stopping at Huntington Bank off Cox Road. Carol is making Alta’s southwestern
turkey/veggie soup for supper. You are slowly returning to a routine that
promotes writing time and while it is you wish to be further along it makes
little difference from my perspective. – Amorella
1327 hours. I can’t imagine it making any difference
at all from your perspective Amorella. People have individual passions that
well up in their lives. Personally, I find this science fact unveiled this
morning as rather humbling, though I am satisfied so humbled. All the spouting
and preaching and arrogance of our ‘fair’ species how is it then our earthly
origin may have come from the potential seed carried in/on a dirty lumbering
comet from long ago. The earth was seeded, evolves and flowers whether we are
here or not. It is such a simple act of seeding the organics. I don’t know if
there is a G---D behind this or not, but I surely see the humor. Life has messy
beginnings and conclusions and we fail to see the messy chaos as an
organization to get us into and out of this ‘place’ we find ourselves in life.
I’ll stop now. No more rattling on.
Sounds like you like to spout and preach
too, boy, what do you think? – Amorella
1408 hours. We are home. I am no doubt as guilty as
the next fellow on the spouting and preaching. I made my living from it,
ironically. Added humility and no words left pretty much says it all.
You had an excellent supper. Carol made your
favorite, Grandma Schick’s recipe meat loaf, a baked potato and mixed cooked
veggies. You watched several programs and have turned off the television for
the night. You spent last night reading the newest Consumer Reports from cover
to cover. And, earlier today you had the added excitement about a small part of
the comet’s composition. You also read and sent an added work from Scientific American sharable print, which you found
quite interesting. Even Doug said he knew nothing about left and right hand
models of life.
** **
What Philae Did During Its 60 Hours on a Comet
The simple reason why the
lander was sent all the way to a comet was to do chemistry that can explain the
origin of life
November 18, 2014 By Mark Lorch and The Conversation UK
Editor's note: The
following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication
covering the latest research.
The drama of
Philae’s slow fall, bounce and unfortunate
slide into hibernation was one of the most thrilling science
stories of a generation. But what in its short 60 hours of life on Comet 67P
did it achieve?
The short answer is
analytical chemistry.
Philae’s payload
included three instruments that are quite common in chemistry labs, but when
deployed on a comet could answer questions about the origins of the solar
system and life itself.
Right- or left-handed
life
Four billion years ago
the solar system was an unsettled place. Earth was undergoing heavy bombardment
by asteroids and comets. This continuous shower may have delivered a significant
amount of water to our planet. But the comets weren’t just dirty snowballs. A
third of their contents was probably complex organic (that is, carbon-based)
molecules. These compounds may well have triggered the chemistry that led to
life on our planet.
One of Philae’s goals is
to provide evidence that the organic chemicals on a comet are sufficiently
similar to the building blocks of life to support the comet impact theory
for abiogenesis.
A key factor is whether Comet 67P (and by extension other comets) contain
predominantly right- or left-handed molecules.
Many molecules come in
one of two forms, known as stereoisomers, which chemists designate as left- or
right-handed. These two forms are identical apart from the fact that they are
mirror images of each other.
Your hands are a perfect
analogy. Structurally, they are the same except for the fact that you can’t
superimpose one on the other. And so it is with stereoisomers.
Strangely, life on Earth
is based entirely on left-handed molecules. It is perfectly possible to make
the right-handed versions, but life just doesn’t. Where this preference for
left-handedness comes from is a mystery.
One theory is that the bias came from within the chemistry of comets. In the
comets, right-handed molecules may have been preferentially destroyed by a
combination of sunlight (to provide energy to trigger chemical reactions) and
liquid water (with which the organic compounds could react).
Philae’s COSAC instrument is
designed to sniff away at the comet’s organic contents and figure out whether
they look like the building blocks of life and, importantly, whether the comet
contains the same preference for lefty chemistry as Earth-bound life.
Homegrown detritus or
alien debris
Most theories hold that
comets were formed from the same nebula that gave birth to rest of the solar
system. But this need not be the case. It could be that they are truly ancient
bodies that entirely, or in part, pre-date the solar system, or perhaps they
have congregated here much more recently? Philae’s Ptolemy
instrument aims to answer this question by comparing the ratios
of different isotopes within Comet 67P.
A given element is
defined by the number of protons in its nucleus. For example carbon always has
six protons. However the number of neutrons can vary giving rise to carbon-12
(six protons and six neutrons), carbon-13 (with seven neutrons) and carbon-14
(with eight neutrons). All these different variations are known as isotopes.
The ratio of these isotopes in any given body will vary depending on its
origins. And since the material in the solar system came from more or less the
same place, the isotopic carbon ratios for the Sun, the Earth and asteroids are
pretty much the same.
But comets might be
different, in fact remote
measurements of comet Hale-Boop suggest that it may be an
extra-solar alien. The problem is there were large uncertainties in these
readings, so we can’t be sure of their accuracy. By sending the Ptolemy
instrument to the surface of a comet this should all be resolved, as its
isotopic measurements are meant to be as accurate as those performed on Earth,
and the solar or alien origins of Comet 67P can be confirmed.
The snowball factories
If comets came from the
same stock as the rest of the solar system where and how were they produced?
The Hubble telescope spotted comets in the Kuiper belt just beyond Neptune,
meanwhile the Oort Cloud (another 10,000 times further away) is thought to
contain icy bodies that may, paradoxically, have condensed nearer to Jupiter
and Saturn.
Figuring out where 67P
may have originated is the job of APXS,
an instrument designed to determine the elemental composition of dusty parts of
the comet. By comparing this to material on Earth, the origins of which we are
more confident about, we should be able to figure out the birth place of 67P.
Mark Lorch does not work
for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or
organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant
affiliations.
Selected and edited from
- http://www.scientificamericanDOTcom/article/what-philae-did-during-its-60-hours-on-a-comet/
** **
2055
hours. This is really interesting. This new information helps us better see who
we are and how the environmental mix was to get us here. I like to think we
Homo sapiens are an accident of nature with perhaps a purpose partially of our
own making (part of which may also be accidental). What is really cool is that
in this extension of imagination we are not even including the possibility of
multitudes of universes in varieties of various dimensions. Where is the room
for human ego and arrogance in such thinking? What is the real academics,
philosophy and theology in such a grand sense of accident or scheme of all matter
and beyond? This is a larger than life world a transcendental existentialist
such as myself can love. What humor has such a seemingly limitless bounds? I
know next to nothing and I can revel in the delight.
You revel only your honest self here, boy. –
Amorella
2110 hours. These are my feelings of the moment. It
seems odd to wish to revel in one’s humility, but within is such a sense of
freedom to wonder on all the steps leading to a higher sense of consciousness
and the free will and responsibility that comes with such thinking. Perhaps we,
and similar like species, are observers, explorers and caretakers of our own
gatherings of such species.
You cannot afford to take this beyond alien
species similar to your own. There are always degrees below and beyond, you can
see it in your own individual diversities without the tint of cultures within
civilizations. I once mentioned an analogy with the worth of gemstones.
** **
From Notes: 11 February 2013
On your
questions concerning metaphysics in the Merlyn books: Consciousness works its
way 'up' (if you will) in whatever environment self-awareness finds itself in.
This is similar in the books' physics and metaphysics. An analogy relating to
an aptitude for self-awareness can be found in geology, mineralogy, and
eventually gemology. The 'rungs' on such a ladder in reference to a Deliverer,
Rejoinder and Betweener would be as the differences in a consciousness of
self-awareness found in this list from listverse.com of the top ten rarest gems
for the sake of the analogy. The gem list is based on the cost per carat. Let's
exchange dollar value for passion value to gain some semblance of what I am
talking about. – Amorella
** ** **
1.
Jadeite
USD $3,000,000/Carat
2.
Red Diamond USD
$2.300,000/Carat
3.
Serendibite
USD $1.900,000/Carat
4.
Blue Garnet
USD $1,500,000/Carat
5.
Painite
USD $55,000/Carat
Deliverer
6.
Grandidierite
USD
$50,000/Carat Rejoinder
7.
Musgravite
USD
$35,000/Carat Betweener
8.
Red Beryl Emerald USD
$10,000/Carat
9.
Black Opal
USD $2355/Carat
10. Jeremejevite
USD $2000/Carat
From: list
verse.com
**
Notice, the value is in carat only. We are talking about no other natural 'gem' characteristics that would add
to the value of the gems above. The environment that induced the 'gems' be
produced is also an unknown here. – Amorella
From – Notes
- “a gem analogy” – 11 February
2013 - Encounters in MInd
** ** **
You see, wherever you go with this Alice’s
Rabbit Hole is in looking up not down. This is the humor you refer to. It is your
own humor boy. Post. – Amorella
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