Theoretical origin of life: the effect of comets again (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, April 08, 2016, 15:49 (3151 days ago) @ David Turell

A laboratory simulation of a comet has shown that ribose might just arrive on Earth that way. Is this GIGO?:-https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160407155617.htm-"Researchers have for the first time shown that ribose, a sugar that is one of the building blocks of genetic material in living organisms, may have formed in cometary ices. To obtain this result, scientists at the Institut de Chimie de Nice (CNRS/Université Nice Sophia Antipolis) carried out a highly detailed analysis of an artificial comet created by their colleagues at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud). Along with other teams[1], including one at the SOLEIL synchrotron, they propose the first realistic scenario for the formation of this key compound, which had never been detected in meteorites or cometary ices until now. -***-" As a first step, an artificial comet was produced at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale. By placing a representative mixture of water (H2O), methanol (CH3OH) and ammonia (NH3) in a high vacuum chamber at -- 200 °C, the astrophysicists simulated the formation of dust grains coated with ice, the raw material of comets. This material was irradiated with UV, as in the molecular clouds where these grains form. The sample was then warmed to room temperature, as in comets when they approach the Sun. Its composition was analyzed at the Institut de Chimie de Nice, optimizing an extremely sensitive and accurate method (multidimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry). Several sugars were detected, including ribose. Their diversity and relative abundances suggest that they were formed from formaldehyde (a molecule found in space and on comets that forms in large quantities from methanol and water).-"Although the existence of ribose in real comets remains to be confirmed, this discovery completes the list of the molecular building blocks of life that can be formed in interstellar ice. It also lends further support to the theory that comets are the source of the organic molecules that made life possible on Earth, and perhaps elsewhere in the Universe."-Comment: A man-made comet controlled by intelligent design of humans. Just because ribose is lying around on earth doesn't mean it would join forces with some scattered amino acids to form life. Maybe they all gathered at a thermal vent and got cooked together?