Research Reveals Rosetta’s Comet Has Ingredients Vital For Origin Of Life

Rosetta's comet has been found to contain ingredients that considered to have significance for the origin of life on Earth. The discovery was made through ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, which has been investigating for the past two years. The scientists have included amino acid gycine that is usually found in proteins, as well as phosphorus, which is a major component of the cell membranes and DNA.

The Rosetta's comet has been observed with a notable difference, while some asteroids and comets have been already known to contain water that has the same composition with Earth's oceans.  Such findings have encouraged a debate about their role in the origin of the Earth's water, according to Phys.Org.

However, the findings about Rosetta's comet reveal the likelihood to provide ingredients that are important in establishing life. According to reports, the amino acids are biologically significant organic compounds that have oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen, which also build the basis of proteins. There are evidences of glycine in the samples brought to Earth from the Comet Wild-2 through NASA's Stardust exploration. However, the possible terrestrial contamination of these samples has made the analysis very difficult.

According to principal investigator Kathrin Altwegg, this is the first unambiguous revelation of glycine in a comet. On the other hand, they also found other particular organic molecules, which can be precursors to glycine, which offers the potential ways in which it could have formed. The research paper has been published in the journal Science Advances Today.   

Glycine transforms only into a gas when it reaches temperatures below 150°C, which means there is normally  little amount released from the comet's surface or subsurface due to the low temperatures. According to Altwegg, this is the reason why Rosetta spacecraft does not always detect it.  

Rosetta's comet was initially detected in Oct. 2014 while the spacecraft was only 10 km away. The next event was in March 2015 during a flyby, when it was around 30 to 15 km away, Swiss Info reported.