Posted on 02/15/2010 8:30:53 PM PST by TaraP
A meteorite that hit the town of Murchison, Australia, hasn't quit giving up its secrets.
The Murchison meteorite is one of the most studied space rocks because many pieces were recovered after it was seen breaking up as it fell through the atmosphere in 1969. Approximately 100 kg of the carbonaceous chondrite was recovered.
Carbonaceous chondrites are extremely important to scientists as they were formed from material that existed in the solar system's planet-forming disk of gas and dust. They are, quite literally, time capsules holding onto a 4 billion year old record of the birth of our solar system.
In this case, the Murchison meteorite has given us another clue as to the abundance of organic chemicals that existed before the Earth had formed. In fact, this particular meteorite may have originated from material older than our sun.
"We are really excited. When I first studied it and saw the complexity I was so amazed," said Dr Phillipe Schmitt-Kopplin, of the Institute for Ecological Chemistry in Neuherberg, Germany.
"Meteorites are like some kind of fossil. When you try to understand them you are looking back in time."
This new research made use of high resolution spectroscopic tools to identify the various compounds inside. Although this meteorite has provided scientists with vast amounts of information about specific carbon-based organics before, this was the first non-targeted study. In other words, the researchers weren't tracking down just one type of chemical, they did a broad analysis for all the chemicals it might contain.
And what they found came as a shock, it appears that the primordial solar system probably had a higher chemical diversity than present-day Earth.
In this study, 14,000 specific compounds including 70 amino acids were identified. But this number appears to be the tip of the iceberg; the meteorite probably contains millions of different organic compounds. More detailed analysis will now be carried out.
But why is this important? To understand the diversity of organic chemicals that were floating around a primordial solar system will help us understand how life may have appeared on Earth. This particular chunk of carbonaceous chondrite drifted through the gas and dust of the early solar system, collecting all the basic organic chemistry from around that time, does that mean diverse organic chemistry is the "norm" for proto-planetary star systems?
These organic compounds are known to exist on comets, asteroids and other planetary bodies, so what makes Earth the hothouse of life when everywhere else seems to be lifeless?
If organic chemistry is ubiquitous, perhaps planning to "seed" young star systems with Earth-based life isn't such a good idea. The conditions for life may not be that rare after all.
Einstein says matter and energy are interchangeable. Modern science says time and space are BOTH also intergangeable with energy.
Therefore, the theory is that energy existed first, and was later converted into matter. Some was converted into space and some into time also.
I don’t understand that part about time and space. But I can see the idea that matter is energy. Protons neutrons, and electrons are apparently made out of pure energy. And all matter is made of these things.
You have to take things by steps. The first step was taken by Einstein, who conceived of space-time. Lucretius makes a comment prescient of this, "Time also exists not of itself, but from things themselves is derived the sense of what has been done in the past". Remarkable.
With General Relativity, Einstein established what Wheeler calls Geometrodynamics, that is a physics OF space-time, rather than a physics that transpires IN a rigid framework of space-time. But the idea of an evolving or changing space-time begs the question of time. It seems to require a "time out of time". This is thinking at the limit of what it is possible to conceive.
A very old theology explains life on earth fairly well I think and would encompass this meteorites composition.
“Where conditions are favorable for matter life emerges, where favorable for life, intelligence emerges, where favorable for intelligence, consciousness emerges.”
In the only example we have this has been bourne out.
There it is, proof positive we came from a bunch of rocks. Well, maybe the liberals did.
I think it would be fair to say that they have lots of ideas; just no definitive evidence the confirm or disconfirm any of them.
Just pointing out the obvious ....
I am more likely to believe God created it all than I am to believe that matter just suddenly formed from nothing, not only that we are to believe that nothing(space)formed from nothing.
A good look around the Solar System would show the conditions are extremely rare. And by any objective measure, life is rare on Earth, but not as rare as other places.
It depends on what your definition of life is.
I believe just recently they found life at underwater volcanoes and are quite shocked that organisms could exist in a toxic enviroment..
I guess if you are looking at planets for brights light or freeways,people walking around etc you might be find nothing at all and conclude no life exists.
Galaxies exist that are Gazillions of years older than Earth,i ain’t a gambling man but somewhere a form of life exists..
No, we can’t rule out life elsewhere. And I think as far as biological life is concerned we can conclude life is rare. You can take insects, microorganisms around vents and elsewhere, but life is rare even here on Earth. What objective measure would you like to use, mass, volume, etc? The proportion of life is super small.
Proponents of the big bang say that it all began with a singularity, which isn't an object but a horizon.
When the temperature is a billion billion billion degrees, all four fundamental forces are melted down into one substance. When it explodes and cools, time-space geometry, mater and chemical compounds emerge.
Seems like the physicists have mathematical formula and other good evidence for all of this and it jives with basic theology.
But, you say that you don't believe in the big bang.
Why do you doubt it I wonder. So, you are a creationist?
100 Kg X $20-?30 per gr=???
I need FR help!
100 kg X $20-$30 gr=??
Need FR help!
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