Spaceflight Now is reporting that The Philae lander found organic molecules on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko .
One of Philae’s sample analysis sensors — named COSAC — did collect data in “sniff” mode and detected organic molecules, presumably outgassing just above the comet’s surface.
Also at The Guardian, The BBC, and Universe Today.
Research is underway to determine if the compounds are simple ones like methanol and ammonia or more complex ones like the amino acids.
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:41PM
Of course if you have water, carbon and UV light (or ionizing radiation), you are bound to find "organic" substances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:39PM
This is a serious matter [srogers.com]. Baobabs are never funny on small celestial bodies, even if sheep could eat them when at saplings age.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @02:21PM
I'm sure the moderator took the baobabs seriously. He just LOLed over the last sentence:
As anyone knows, there's absolutely no chance that anything organic would just pop up somewhere, even if it's just organic methanol. After all, where would the required certificates come from?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 20 2014, @07:03PM
Of course the comet is Organic. How would they have even gotten the pesticides up there in the first place?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Horse With Stripes on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:44PM
Enter the fringe who are going to claim the whole "landed, transmitted, then died" result was all a plan by scientists so they could claim "we found the building blocks of life!!! ... but we can't ask Philae any more about it, sorry".
Commencing countdown ... three, two, one.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:48PM
(Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:59PM
No, they found the gates to Hell. And the "organic stuff" is the gas they use over there, to light up the furnaces.
(Score: -1) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 20 2014, @12:54PM
What the fuck makes some extraordinarily common molecules "organic"? Just because they involve carbon, one of the most fucking common atoms that are found JUST ABOUT FUCKING EVERYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE?!
(Score: 4, Informative) by sudo rm -rf on Thursday November 20 2014, @01:41PM
Well, actually, yes [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Thursday November 20 2014, @04:03PM
Yes, that is what makes them organic.
Also, holy fuck, quick, we need to slap this shit in yuppie food. Imagine the profit.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 1) by fritsd on Thursday November 20 2014, @04:43PM
Let's say it's historically defined.
Read up on the vis vitalis, if you like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism [wikipedia.org]
Fascinating Wikipedia article.