Philae discovers “living bricks” on Tchouri comet – France Info

9 months after landing the small robot on the Tchouri comet, the first results of its exploration are published in the journal Science.

The new scientific results of unprecedented exploration of the comet reveal Tchouri unexpected structures and characteristics, including the presence of four organic molecules: the building blocks of life, never seen before on these small bodies.

These are the main findings of the measures and analyzes made by the instruments of Philae, the small lander, which for the first time in history has been able to collect data directly on a cometary nuclei.

Francis Rocard is astro-physicist, head of solar system exploration programs at CNES, he returned to France Info on these organics already discovered in Philae on Tchouri.

” These molecules are formed at the time of the birth of the solar system “- Francis Rocard with Ariane Griessel

Four molecule never detected so far

The four molecules detected on the comet entering a chain of chemical evolution can lead to the formation of basic building blocks of life.

A total of sixteen compounds were identified which are divided into six classes organic molecules including alcohols and amines. Among these molecules, the four never found so far on a comet are inter alia methyl, and acetone, important precursor molecules for life such as sugars and amino acids. However, the presence
of these more complex compounds could not be identified with this first analysis.

These observations provide an overview of the chemical processes that occur in a comet nucleus and even already in the cloud of dust, in collapsing, gave birth to the solar system there is 4.6 billion years, according to the astronomers.

molecules formed during the birth of the solar system

Since comets have not undergone any change since the emergence of the solar system little is deduced from these observations, that these cometary organics were already agglomerated grains of several millimeters as on ” Tchouri “. Previously thought that only small organic molecules were trapped in the ice of cometary nuclei.

It is such grain ending up in the oceans of the Earth and perhaps on other planets and moons elsewhere in the solar system, could encourage the emergence of life, say the authors of this work.

After arriving on November 12, she was able to run for 60 hours before s ‘sleep, lack of sufficient sunlight to recharge its solar batteries. In his eighth and last contact on July 9, Philae communicated longer transmitting data. But the quality of the communication has not enabled scientists to send commands to the robot to operate tools.