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Building block of life found on comet
By Steve Gorman

Composite Image of Comet Wild 2 by Stardust's Camera

The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that raw ingredients of life arrived on Earth from outer space, scientists said on Monday.

Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004.
Read the rest of this Reuters story

Tags: Amino acid on comet, Comet Wild 2, extraterrestial life, glycine, life in outer space

This entry was posted on 20/08/2009 at 22:32 and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.