ContraBardus Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Evidence of alien life is "unequivocal" on the comet carrying the Philae probe through space, two leading astronomers have said. The experts say the most likely explanation for certain features of the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, such as its organic-rich black crust, is the presence of living organisms beneath an icy surface. Rosetta, the European spacecraft orbiting the comet, is also said to have picked up strange "clusters" of organic material that resemble viral particles. But neither Rosetta nor its lander probe, Philae, are equipped to search for direct evidence of life after a proposal to include this in the mission was allegedly dismissed. Astronomer and astrobiologist Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, who was involved in planning for the mission 15 years ago, said: "I wanted to include a very inexpensive life-detection experiment. At the time it was thought this was a bizarre proposition."... ... Computer simulations have suggested microbes could inhabit the comet's watery regions. It has a black hydrocarbon crust overlaying ice, smooth icy "seas", and flat-bottomed craters containing "lakes" of re-frozen water overlain with organic debris. Prof Wickramasinghe said: "What we're saying is that data coming from the comet seems to unequivocally, in my opinion, point to micro-organisms being involved in the formation of the icy structures, the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very dark surface. More Here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueScholar Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Interesting but I would urge caution. While biochemistry (life related chemical reactions) is certainly a hypothesis to consider, it is not in a vacuum. This is a very different environment from what we have studied on earth and there very well could be a number of conventional and novel chemical processes that may account for what we are beginning to see. I would refrain from making definitive statements as we have barely begun to examine the chemistry of this object in any detail. The use of the word "unequivocal" is unfortunate and fails to appreciate other hypotheses or concepts that are as of yet not explored or developed IMHO. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ContraBardus Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Interesting but I would urge caution. While biochemistry (life related chemical reactions) is certainly a hypothesis to consider, it is not in a vacuum. This is a very different environment from what we have studied on earth and there very well could be a number of conventional and novel chemical processes that may account for what we are beginning to see. I would refrain from making definitive statements as we have barely begun to examine the chemistry of this object in any detail. The use of the word "unequivocal" is unfortunate and fails to appreciate other hypotheses or concepts that are as of yet not explored or developed IMHO. I assumed as much honestly. The article is quite positive and I'm not sure if it's a case of an overly zealous researcher, or an excited reporter leaning towards a conclusion by taking things out of context. Here's another article about it... The comet has a black hydrocarbon crust overlaying ice, smooth icy “seas” and flat-bottomed craters containing lakes of re-frozen water overlain with organic debris. Wickramasinghe said data coming from the comet seems to point to “micro-organisms being involved in the formation of the icy structures, the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very dark surface”. “These are not easily explained in terms of prebiotic chemistry. The dark material is being constantly replenished as it is boiled off by heat from the sun. Something must be doing that at a fairly prolific rate.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueScholar Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Yeah, it is easy to get lost in the excitement and perhaps biochemistry is involved. You are correct that it easily could be quote mining or words taken out of context by a reporter looking for a click worthy article. I will admit, the current findings do suggest interesting processes may very well be involved however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ContraBardus Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 And reality rears it's head once again, and as usual it is both more interesting and less sensational than the article in question... The Guardian’s story “Philae comet could be home to alien life, say scientists” has been met with scepticism and outright dismissal by leading comet experts. The people behind the headline are Chandra Wickramasinghe, University of Buckingham, and Max Wallis, University of Cardiff. Today, the Daily Mirror reported Wickramasinghe as saying, “Data from the comet seems to unequivocally point to micro-organisms being involved.” However, the evidence for any life on Philae’s comet is flimsy at best. Even Wickramasinghe’s own colleague fell short of agreeing with him outright. At the academic lecture that triggered the story, Paul Sutherland of SEN reported Wallis as saying, “If there is any active biology in the comet, we’d hope to detect it”. Certainly, the vast majority of comet scientists would agree that comet 67P’s surface features are much more easily explained by non-biological mechanisms.... ...Planetary scientist Professor Dave Rothery of the Open University posted in a comment on Facebook, “The Guardian and the RAS disgraced themselves today with the ‘top scientists’ argue case for life on comet’ piece today. I’ve just sat through the talk behind the press release and I think it fair to say that the audience was polite but entirely unconvinced. Diatoms [a type of micro-organism] in comets, my arse!” http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2015/jul/06/no-alien-life-on-philae-comet?CMP=twt_science-gdnscience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overcame Faith Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 One step at a time and I do believe we will eventually find convincing evidence of extraterrestrial life, either currently living or that lived in the past. It will be an exciting day when that finally happens!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantheory Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 ContraBardus, "Unequivocal evidence" is a big phrase. My guess is over-zealous researchers or reporters, as you have suggested. Yes, their evidence suggests that microbial life of some kind could live there, but what are the odds? They could live practically anywhere that has complex hydrocarbons and liquid water. I don't think anyone should get too excited yet about this speculation, but if they could somehow prove life exists there or on any body outside the Earth, it would be the story of the century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thought2Much Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 You can pretty much disregard any article about alien life that includes any mention of Chandra Wickramasinghe as some sort of authority on the subject. The guy's a notorious, sensationalist, hack who claims to find alien life all the time. The guy will publish a paper after wiping his own ass and make the claim that he found extraterrestial organisms in his shit. Okay, so that's an exaggeration. But only just barely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Sadly quite true... Phil "bad astronomy" Plait covered this in his blog of course, and he started roughly "As soon as I read that I knew that it came from Wickmarasinghe"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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