Naphthalene Found In Outer Space 180
Adam Korbitz writes with an excerpt from his blog on an exciting discovery in space: "A team of researchers led by Spanish scientists has published their discovery of the complex molecule naphthalene in an interstellar star-forming cloud, indicating many prebiotic organic molecules necessary for life as we know it could have been present when our own solar system formed. According to the new research — published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters — the naphthalene molecules were discovered 700 light-years from Earth in a star-forming region of the constellation Perseus, in the direction of the star Cernis 52."
Misread that one (Score:4, Insightful)
At first I thought it said Neanderthal.
This would be so much cooler then Naphtalene.
My first thought was something along these lines.
Exactly how did he get out there?
I suspected it was a crude version of this... http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002387.html [defensetech.org]
Re:me no RTFA (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed. I wasn't even sure if you were kidding...I was about to mention that Spectroscopy can be done just fine at a distance...
Re:simple molecule (Score:5, Insightful)
Great. Now you need to explain why by accident vast quantities of the organic material hydrocarbons were converted to napthalene in sufficient quantity to be detected at a range of 400 lightyears, and then explain how this event is locally unique so that it didn't happen in every corner of the universe. Good luck with that. May I offer you a noodle? You need only let it touch you to feel its effects.
Re:ummmm /confused (Score:4, Insightful)
If you don't know the difference between microbes and molecules, you should probably go read some science books.
Eega Beeva! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The reason why this is important (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The reason why this is important (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah, but what's the chance of intelligent life evolving?