A picture of Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) on 12 Feb. 2015. (Source: Fabrice Noel, NASA)
With much debate about the origins of life on Earth, the discovery of organic molecules emissions from comets propagates the notion that comets could possibly have been a source of early life.
New research suggests that the emergence of complex organic molecules could be due to comets. By using the 30-m telescope at the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique in Spain, Nicolas Biver and his team of scientists discovered Comet Lovejoy, formally known as C/2014 Q2, emitting over 21 different gaseous organic molecules, including ethyl alcohol and glycolaldehyde (1).
Comets are composed of frozen remnants from the original formation of our solar system. They are relatively untouched and orbit in regions far from the sun, making them a topic of interest for scientists. Lovejoy orbited closest to the sun on January 2015 while releasing water at a rate of 20 tons per second (1).
Scientists were able to observe Lovejoy using spectral surveys and averaging the strongest lines present in the spectral domain. Sunlight helps energize molecules in the comet’s atmosphere, allowing them to vibrate at different microwave frequencies. This allowed scientists to hone in on the minute molecular differences and determine what type of molecules existed in the comets of interest.
The question that Dominique Bockelee-Morvan, a co-author of the paper, now asks is whether “the organic material being found in comets came from the primordial cloud that formed the solar system or if it was created later on” (2).
References:
1) NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. “Researchers catch Comet Lovejoy giving away alcohol.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 October 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151024092534.htm>.
2) N. Biver, D. Bockelee-Morvan, R. Moreno, J. Crovisier, P. Colom, D. C. Lis, A. Sandqvist, J. Boissier, D. Despois, S. N. Milam. Ethyl alcohol and sugar in comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). Science Advances, 2015; 1 (9): e1500863 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500863