Back in 2016, a tiny frozen passenger fired from the edge of our solar system past the Earth at incredible distances. As it passed, it was immediately visible to stars – known as Comet Catalina – before it slipped around the sun, and disappeared from us forever.
However, using a telescope based on a NASA plane called Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), scientists found vital fingerprints of life, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Planetary Science.
Inside the comet’s dusty majesty, find SOFIA carbon.
A frozen comet may have a beginner’s life on Earth
This one-service visitor to the inner solar system helps scientists understand where life on Earth came from – as it looks like comets like Catalina could play an important role as the main source of carbon on planets such as Earth and Mars during the very young period of our solar system.
“Carbon is crucial in learning about the origin of life,” Charles “Chick” Woodward, lead author of the paper, said in a blog post at NASA. Woodward is also a psychologist and professor at the University of Minnesota Institute of Astrophysics – based in Minneapolis.
“We are still unsure whether the Earth could absorb enough carbon on its own when it was created, so comets full of carbon could have been an important source in delivering this essential element that gave live as we know it, “Woodward said.
Primordial Earth was too hot to hold carbon
Comet Catalina came from Oort on the farthest edges of the solar system – where similar comets have long, elliptical orbits that make them enter our proverbial threshold with very little movement in the world. their cosmic path. This makes them like a celestial time capsule in space, giving researchers a rare opportunity to study the state of the early solar system in which the comets formed.
The infrared observations from SOFIA provided data on dust and gas as it erupted from the comet ‘s surface, forming the tail. These observations revealed that Comet Catalina is full of carbon, which means that it was formed in the outer regions of the primordial solar system, which contained a reservoir of carbon that may be necessary for its spawning the origin of life on Earth.
Carbon is an essential part of life, but the young Earth and other earth planets of this time of the inner solar system were so hot from the dangers of creation that elements such as carbon were lost, or depleted.
Comets like Catalina may have planted seeds on Mars
Researchers believe that a small movement in the orbit of Jupiter enabled small, early comets to mix carbon from outer to inner regions, where it was pulled into planets like Mars and the Earth. Comet Catalina’s carbon-heavy fusion helps to show how planets that formed in hot regions, with the carbon-deficiency of the young solar system could become rich environments that life support.
“Every terrestrial world is under the influence of comets and other small groups, which carry carbon and other elements,” Woodward said in a blog post. “We are getting closer to understand just how these effects on early life planets might be captured. “
Without carbon, life as we know it would never have changed on Earth. We have not yet confirmed the existence of life on Mars, but since we know that there are lakes of salt, underground and we suspect that it once had oceans, there may be life in the cards for the Planet. Red. And if life found a way, comets like Catalina might be thankful for seeding it with carbon, just like us.