Real Evidence of Life Beginning in Space
Professor Wickramasinghe of Cardiff University said: “The findings of the comet missions, which surprised many, strengthen the argument for Panspermia. We now have a mechanism for how it could have happened. All the necessary elements - clay, organic molecules, and water - are there. The longer time scale and the greater mass of comets make it overwhelmingly more likely that life began in space than on earth.”
The jury is finally in—humankind has an excellent change of having their first origins in space, as revealed by Cardiff University scientists. With results like this not found anywhere else, Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and colleagues have researched the comet missions to the point of being able to clearly say, “The researchers calculate the odds of life starting on Earth rather than inside a comet at one trillion trillion (10 to the power of 24) to one against.”
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and group have always wanted to prove a theory about how life originated in comets, spreading to habitable planets across the galaxy. A theory that has developed over the years, recent space probes that were sent up to investigate the passing comets will possibly help prove this unique idea in more ways than one.
One of the comets that was investigated involved the 2005 Deep Impact mission to Comet Tempel I, which provided the first evidence of water ice on comets. Members of NASA’s Deep Impact team reported that this was the first “definitive evidence” of surface ice on any comet. One of the main goals of the Deep Impact mission was to find out what was inside and outside of a comet.
The findings of water ice satisfied that goal by offering substantial insight into the composition of the comet. Also, according to this months’ s online Innovative Report, inside the comet was a discovery of organic and clay particle mixtures, which formed a base for one of the theories that clay particles acted as a catalyst, which converts simple organic molecules into complex ones. Whereas, the 2004 Stardust Mission to Comet Wild 2 discovered a range of “complex hydrocarbon molecules”—which are the building blocks for life—potentially.
The Cardiff science team also proposed that water could be kept in radioactive elements in a liquid form inside comets for millions of year, which could make the comet an actual incubator for early life forms. Moreover, as far as clay content goes, the Earth has far less clay than the billions of comets in our solar system and galaxy contain.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 6:33 am and is filed under Mars News, Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
