By: Johnny
Theoretically, The worlds oceans began forming and the sequence of events that resulted in the first life on earth began about 3.8 billion years ago, when many comets and asteroids were smashing into earth. The water contained in these comets are believed to have delivered the water necessary to form the worlds oceans. Many researchers believe the comet impacts on the ancient Earth delivered a supply of organic molecules that could have resulted in the very first life originating on Earth. Recent findings of complex organic molecules in comet Lovejoy gives support to this hypothesis.
Comets are frozen remnants from the formation of our solar system. Comets are relatively pristine, therefore hold clues into how our solar system was formed. Therefore, scientists, especially from the Goddard Space Observatory are very interested in them. Most comets habitat frigid zones far from the sun. Occasionally, however a gravitational disturbance sends a comet closer to our sun. Heating it up and releasing gases, allowing scientists to observe and determine its composition.
The comet, nicknamed: Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) was the brightest and most active comet to visit close to Earth since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Lovejoy passed closest to our sun on January 30, 2015, when it was releasing water at the rate of 20 tons per second. Scientists observed a microwave glow emanating from the comet using a 30-metre diameter radio telescope at Pico Veleta in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Spain.
Ethyl alcohol and a simple sugar known as glycolaldehyde were detected in Comet Lovejoy, said a study in the journal Science Advances on Friday (local time).
Stefanie Milam from the NASA Goddard Flight Centre, a co-author of the paper said “The result definitely promotes the idea the comets carry very complex chemistry”. “Life didn’t have to start with just simple molecules of water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Instead, life had something that was much more sophisticated on a molecular level. We’re finding molecules with multiple carbon atoms. So now you can see where sugars start forming, as well as more complex organics such as amino acids—the building blocks of proteins—or nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA. These can start forming much easier than beginning with molecules with only two or three atoms.”
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