Astronomers: Life can be detected on comet 67P

Astronomers: Life can be detected on comet 67P

Astronomers have proposed a new explanation for the strange manifestation of a comet that carried a robot probe, belonging to the European Space Agency, alien microscopic life in outer space.

Most of the features of frozen dust balls, which include a black crust on frozen lakes, flat-bottomed craters and mega-boulders scattered over the surface, were "relevant" with the presence of microbes, scientists said.

Studies by the European Space Agency showed that Comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko "should not be viewed as a deeply frozen and inactive body, it supports geological processes," said Max Wallis of Cardiff University in a statement from the Royal Astronomical Community (RAS).

In fact, the comet rushes straight to the Sun at a speed of 32, 9 km (20, 4 miles) per second. Also, according to astronomers, it may be more susceptible to micro-life than our earthly Arctic and Antarctic.

Wallis, as well as his colleague Chandra Wickramasinghe at Buckingham Astrobiology Center, presented their theory on Monday at a meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Llandudno, Wales. They pointed to the discovery of complex organic surprising material on Rosette, which is super-dark and with a poorly reflective surface, as "evidence for life."

In addition, Wikramasinghe said that 67P gas emissions began “at distances too far from the Sun to cause surface sublimation. This means that microorganisms under the comet’s surface are so-called“ high-pressure gas building sites that break open ice and provides ventilation of organic particles, "he said via e-mail.

Vikramasinghe also referred to a rough surface with signs of re-sealing cracks and displaced boulders and coating of organics, which should be supplied.

Microorganisms can use liquid water to colonize a comet — by melting ice cracks and snow during warm time periods when the space wanderer is closer to the Sun, the statement said.

"Organisms that contain salt antifreeze are extremely well adapted to these conditions, and some of them can become active at temperatures down to minus 40 degrees Celsius." Illuminated areas of the comet had already reached this temperature last September, when it was about 500 million kilometers (310 million miles) from the Sun, emitting weak jets of gas.

Comets follow elliptical orbits around the Sun, and the closer the comets are to the Sun, the warmer they are, causing the transformation of solid to gaseous, called sublimation. It is sublimation that gives them their impressive tails.

67P is close to the closest point to the Sun, about 185 million kilometers around August 13. "Microorganisms may become more active," the team suggested. Hopefully, Rosetta and Phil will find some evidence of life.

Comets are frozen balls of dust and ice that remained after the solar system was formed about 4, 6 billion years ago, and scientists hope that their solution to their problem will be able to solve the problem of the creation of the Earth.

One theory is that they broke in our young planet at that time, providing it with precious water and chemical building blocks for life.

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