Just as kits of little plastic bricks can be used to make everything from models of the space shuttle to the statue of liberty, comets are looking more and more like one of Nature's toolkits for creating life. These chunks of ice and dust wandering our solar system appear to be filled with organic molecules that are the building blocks of life.
The discovery of two kinds of nitrogen-rich organic molecules in comet Wild 2 using NASA's Stardust spacecraft is the latest addition to the set of bits and pieces useful to the origin of life that's been found in comets.
The article explains:
These discoveries were made by members of the Stardust Preliminary Examination Team, a group of scientists who have been studying the samples returned from comet Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft in January 2006.
"'These results show that comets could have delivered nitrogen rich organic compounds to the early Earth where they would have been available for the origin of life,'" said Scott Sandford of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
"This discovery shows that the menu of compounds available for the origin of life was richer than had been previously thought," said Jason Dworkin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Cheers,
Bob-C
