Incredible comet mission finds compounds that could be the basis of life on Earth

By Victoria Bryan, Reuters From Business Insider

Astronomers Caught This Amazing Stellar Pulse With The Hubble Telescope

BERLIN (Reuters) – European comet lander Philae ‘sniffed’ carbon-based, organic molecules before its primary battery ran out and it shut down, German scientists said.

They said it was not yet clear whether they included the complex compounds that make up proteins. One of the key aims of the mission is to discover whether carbon-based compounds, and through them, ultimately, life, were brought to early Earth by comets.

Gautam Naik at The Wall Street Journal explains:

Scientists are analyzing the data to see whether the organic compounds detected by Philae are simple ones — such as methane and methanol — or a more complex species such as amino acids, the building blocks for proteins. A drill on Philae also obtained some material from the comet’s hard surface, but data about organic molecules from that experiment have yet to be fully analyzed.

Philae landed on smelly comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko after a 10-year journey through space aboard the Rosetta spacecraft — which let us see an unprecedented look at what comets look like up close — on a mission to unlock details about how planets and maybe even how life evolved.

On its way down and upon making contact with the comet, Philae sent back stunning images, but also sadly bounced along the surface after touch down and ended up under a cliff, which limited the amount of science it could do.

It wrapped up its 57-hour mission on the comet’s surface on Saturday after radioing back data from a series of experiments as its battery ran out.

Comets date back to the formation of our solar system and have preserved ancient organic molecules like a time capsule.

The COSAC gas analyzing instrument on Philae was able to ‘sniff’ the atmosphere and detect the first organic molecules after landing, the DLR German Aerospace Center said.

The lander also drilled into the comet’s surface in its hunt for organic molecules, but the latest results indicate that no soil was collected from the surface. So we only have data from what COSAC sniffed.

Also onboard the lander was the MUPUS tool to measure the density and thermal and mechanical properties of the comet’s surface. It showed the comet’s surface was not as soft as previously believed.

A thermal sensor was supposed to be hammered around 40 cm into the surface but this did not occur, despite the hammer setting being cranked up to its highest level.

The DLR reckons that after passing through a 10-20 cm thick layer of dust, the sensor hit a layer of material estimated to be as hard as ice.

“It’s a surprise. We didn’t expect such hard ice on the ground,” Tilman Spohn, who leads the MUPUS team at the DLR, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Spohn said MUPUS could be used again if enough sunlight gets through to reload Philae’s batteries, which the scientists hope may happen as the comet approaches the sun.

IMAGES:

Rosetta_mission_selfie_at_comet ESA

ROSETTA Philae_touchdown ESA/ATG medialab An artist’s rendering of the Philae probe on Comet 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Comet_details ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA A wider field of view of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the larger lobe, where the boulder Cheops is located. This picture was taken by the Rosetta spacecraft shortly after its arrival in August.

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