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Astrobiology: Latest News


2004-08-23 | MISSIONS
Cooking on a Comet

The Ptolemy instrument onboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will 'smell' samples from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that have been cooked in a set of miniature ovens. By doing so, Rosetta will analyze the samples and search for substances that will help scientists determine if comets could act as a source for the building blocks of life. Ptolemy is also a new technology that could help future missions analyze samples on other distant locations in the Solar System.

Rosetta is the first mission to orbit and land on a comet, providing scientists with a unique opportunity to examine Churyumov-Gerasimenko's surface and nucleus. Scientists are hopeful that the mission will help determine whether or not comets provided Earth with the organics that gave rise to terrestrial life. Understanding the origin of life on Earth is an important goal of astrobiology research at NASA, and essential for determining the potential for life elsewhere in the solar system.


More on this story

Full text of original item from ESA, Aug 23, 2004

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