Space probe finds building blocks of life on comet

                ESA’s (European Space Agency) Rosetta comet-hunting spacecraft has attained a major breakthrough by discovering that comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko contains ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life, the space agency said on 27 May.

                According to ESA, the ingredients include amino acid glycine which is commonly found in protein, a key component of DNA and cell membranes. “This is the first unambiguous detection of glycine at a comet,” said Kathrin Alwegg, principal investigator of the ROSINA instrument on Rosetta which made the measurements and lead author of the paper published in ‘Science Advances’. Rosina was designed and developed at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

                Hints of the simplest amino acid Glycine were found in samples returned to earth in 2006 from Comet Wild-2 by Nasa’s Stardust mission. However, possible terrestrial contamination of the dust samples made the analysis extremely difficult, says ESA. “Now, Rosetta has made direct repeated detections of glycine in the fuzzy atmosphere or ‘coma’ of its comet,” according to the announcement.