Did Comets Prepare Earth for Life?

One of the big Space stories last year involved the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.  Data from the mission found that the 2.5 mile long “dirty snowball” orbiting the sun every 6.44 years contains not just frozen water and water vapor but the mineral phosphorus and the amino acid glycine, two more of the building blocks of life.

More:

“Rosetta’s comet has the right ingredients for life,” Rachel Feltman, Washington Post

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Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-nXh

Image (“Comet, after Charles Martin”) by Mike Licht, who knows 67P has no tail. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Space Aliens on Meteorites!

Space aliens invade Earth, riding on meteorites! They’re bugs! Microscopic bugs!

Or … maybe not:

“Has Evidence for Alien Life Been Found?” Ian O’Neill, Discovery News

“Bacteria….FROM OUTER SPACE,” Science vs. Pseudoscience

“Has life been found in a meteorite?” Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy

 “NASA Scientist Says He Sees Alien Fossils in Meteorite,” Dan Satterfield, AGU Blogosphere

“Bugs From Space? Forget It,” Richard A. Kerr, ScienceInsider

“Aliens Riding Meteorites: Arsenic Redux or Something New?” David Dobbs, Neuron Culture

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.