From Diffuse Interstellar Bands to comets: the organic connection
Abstract
The analysis of dust grains collected by Rosetta spacecraft from comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko has shown that are constituted of about the same amount of minerals and of large organic molecules. We suggest that the comet organic molecules are the same organic molecules that produce, in the Interstellar Medium (ISM), diffuse absorption features imprinted on stellar spectra (DIBs, Diffuse Interstellar Bands).Inasmuch as comet bombardment (3.5 billion tons of organic in comet 67/P) has favored the emergence of life on Earth, and since DIB are observed ubiquitously, the proposed connection would be also favorable for life for all habitable exo-planets in the Universe.
Domains
Astrophysics [astro-ph]| Origin | Files produced by the author(s) |
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