Posted on 12/02/2006 9:09:57 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Hollow spheres found in a primordial meteorite could yield clues to the origin of life on Earth. Scientists say that "bubbles" like those in the Tagish Lake meteorite may have helped along chemical processes important for the emergence of life. The globules could also be older than our Solar System - their chemistry suggests they formed at about -260C, near "absolute zero"... Analysis of the bubbles shows they arrived on Earth in the meteorite and are not terrestrial contaminants... Dr Lindsay Keller of Nasa's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, told BBC News that some scientists believed such structures were "a step in the right direction" to making a cell wall. But he emphasised that the globules in Tagish Lake were in no way equivalent to a cell. The hollow spheres seem to be empty, but they do have organic molecules on their surfaces. Mike Zolensky, a NASA mineralogist, commented: "If, as we suspect, this type of meteorite has been falling on to Earth throughout its entire history, then the Earth was seeded with these organic globules at the same time life was first forming here." ...The Tagish Lake meteorite was collected immediately after its fall over Canada in 2000. It has been maintained in a frozen state, minimising the potential for terrestrial contamination.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
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Many "just-so" stories...active imaginations are very useful for scientific investigation and theorizing!
God is the cause, everything else is an effect.
['Civ bows]
Hollow spheres found in a primordial meteorite could yield clues to the origin of life on Earth.
From this they will determine the origin of life. What imaginations.
The fireball lit up the sky over North America
Using eyewitness accounts, photographs, videos, and satellite data of the rock's fiery and dramatic entrance into the Earth's atmosphere, the researchers have also calculated where the meteorite came from.
Its trajectory indicates that the space rock originated from the middle of the asteroid belt which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter (about 300 million to 600 million kilometres/186 million to 370 million miles from the Sun).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/968749.stm
Long way to deliver a snow-cone... ;') Thanks for the pic and story.
Why was this moved to chat?
What are you talking about?
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