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+--- Thread: NASA Finds Amino Acid in Cometary Material (/showthread.php?tid=9915)
NASA Finds Amino Acid in Cometary Material - Bob Schroeck - 08-18-2009
It is, as far as I can tell, the first evidence of organic chemistry (by which I mean the chemistry of life, as opposed to "anything involving
carbon") in extraterrestrial material.
NASA announcement here.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
- robkelk - 08-19-2009
Wow.
Just... Wow.
(And how many folks won't realize how important this is, paying attention instead to poltics or economics?)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
- Epsilon - 08-19-2009
The study of abiogenesis is very important, and is also very politically charged right now.
Of course, if they're right this only pushes the question one step back. If the fundamental amino acid structures formed in space rather than on Earth, why
did they do so, and how?
----------------
Epsilon
Fundamentals - Rev Dark - 08-19-2009
Well, it is more than that - the idea that the formation of fundamental amino acids occurs elsewhere in the universe, or more specifically pretty much
everywhere in the universe, makes it that much harder to argue for special creation.
Okay it is easy to argue for special creation - actually providing some evidence (okay, any evidence) for special creation is the problem.
- ECSNorway - 08-19-2009
What gets me is that it's a recognizeable molecule -- identical to Earth-made stuff. Amino acids are pretty complex, as I recall my organic chemistry.
Which means that alien life is going to be built on relatively similar building blocks to our own...
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
- Bob Schroeck - 08-19-2009
Or rather, as the article suggests the thinking goes, Earth life is built on building blocks from alien ecosystems...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.