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We have long thought about how life came about on our lovely planet and what we know so far is that all biological molecules on Earth are made up of six chemical elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur (CHNOPS). In the past, we have found most of these elements in comets.
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Four of these (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen) are the main ingredients of carbonaceous asteroids while the fifth (sulfur) was discovered in a chemical analysis of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is in this same comet that researchers have now found the sixth and final missing element of life: phosphorus.
An important first
“This is the first time that CHNOPS elements indispensable for life are found in solid comet matter. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur have been reported in previous studies by the Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer (COSIMA) team, for example by organic molecules, “said a press release from the University of Turku regarding the find.
“The discovered phosphorus, or P, is the last of the CHNOPS elements. The discovery of P points to cometary delivery as a potential source of these elements to the young Earth.”
The discovery may finally reveal that it is comets that brought life to Earth billions of years ago.
COSIMA is an instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft. The probe tracked the comet between September 2014 and September 2016, and the dust particles that led to the discovery of the phosphorus were collected directly in the comet’s vicinity.
This whole process has been controlled quite impressively from Earth on a comet that takes 6.5 years to orbit the Sun. The target plates were photographed remotely and the particles were identified from the resulting images. It should be noted that fluorine was also detected although its importance and role have yet to be identified.
The study was published in the journal Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.
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