Ancient Comet Fragments Found In Antarctic Snow 92
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos Magazine:
"Two tiny meteorites recently recovered from Antarctic snow contain material dating back to the birth of our Solar System, and may provide clues about the delivery of organic matter to Earth. Researchers believe that these micrometeorites likely came from the cold, comet-forming outer regions of the gas and dust cloud that comprised the early Solar System, and sample its composition. Discovered in 2006, the particles measure less than 0.25 mm across and survived their journey through Earth's atmosphere relatively unscathed. More importantly, scientists found that they contain unusually high amounts of organic matter."
Re:this theory again (Score:5, Informative)
Re:this theory again (Score:5, Informative)
It unfortunately doesn't appear to be freely available online anywhere, but you might be interested in this survey paper [nature.com] if you have access to a university library.
Re:hmmm (Score:3, Informative)
It's not really a paradox, it just isn't an answer to how life originally arose.
(It is perfectly consistent for life to have originated somewhere else and spread here)
You're confused a little (Score:5, Informative)
Organic matter != Life though. I'm not sure if Panspermia brought life to Earth or not, but the organic matter in comets isn't alive. It's just the building blocks that could potentally have been involved in life coming into being.
Re:RUN! (Score:4, Informative)