Can’t wait to see headlines confusing “organic” with “biological”
NASA finds water and organics in asteroid sample—possible clues to origin of life
Submitted 1 year ago by btaf45@lemmy.world to astronomy@mander.xyz
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starman2112@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Caboose12000@lemmy.world 1 year ago
can you explain the difference? I genuinely dont know
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Sure thing! In chemistry, an organic compound is anything that has carbon in it. Carbon dioxide, for example, is an organic compound. While organic compounds are what life is made of, they don’t necessarily come from life. Biological, in this context, would be something that’s part of a living thing.
If any actual chemists want to correct anything I’ve said wrong or expand on this that would be appreciated
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 1 year ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Following carefully choreographed procedures to prevent the contamination of the asteroid dust and rocks from life on Earth, the samples were transferred to a clean room at Johnson Space Center in Houston two weeks ago.
While the effort to determine the overall mass is ongoing, Lauretta said early estimates are that the asteroid capture mission collected about 250 grams of pebbles and dust from the surface of Bennu.
After the material is cataloged, it will be loaned out in small quantities to 230 scientists across 35 countries who are members of the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-Rex mission team.
The big deal is that Bennu, an asteroid in a near-Earth orbit that is about one-half kilometer across, is believed to be a time capsule for the types of rocks and chemicals that existed when the planets formed in our Solar System more than 4 billion years ago.
By studying Bennu, scientists are looking back to that primordial era when Earth began transitioning from an extremely hot world with a hellish surface environment into something more like a mud ball.
In a preliminary analysis of some of the dust, Lauretta said scientists hit the jackpot with a sample that is nearly 5 percent carbon by mass and has abundant water in the form of hydrated clay minerals.
The original article contains 546 words, the summary contains 221 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Cruxifux@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s because asteroids with orgánica that create life are sent out by the Pathagorath, the screeching glutton that dwells in the blinding. He’s the creature that lives in the center of the galaxy and sends out asteroids to seed worlds with life so that he can devour their souls. You see when we die our souls are eternally digested in his bottomless belly, and without ever increasing nourishment his metabolism would cease to produce the necessary excretions our galaxy needs for time to exist and we would simply blink out of existence. We owe him eternally for our existence as well as our damnation.
DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world 1 year ago
What kinda panspermian fan fiction is this?
Cruxifux@lemmy.world 1 year ago
We must make sacrifices to the Pathagorath in hopes that he may notice our devotion to him and destroy our souls before they are harvested.
Brazzburry@lemmy.world 1 year ago
And he sent his one true son to teach us about triangles… Again.