Video: Comet Probe Philae Finds Organic Compounds

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Organic molecules that are some of the building blocks to life have been found on the comet 67P by the ESA’s Philae probe.

According to GeoBeats News:

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Despite some unpredictable events during the Philae probe’s exploration of the comet known as 67P, it has still managed to send back a large amount of valuable data.

Many of the findings were recently published in a series of papers in the journal Science.

Among them is a description of the comet as a body of matter which turns out to be relatively porous and uniform on the inside but diverse in content on the outside.

In fact, Philae found a minimum of 16 organic compounds on the surface–four of which were detected on a comet for the first time.

Comets are known to contain numerous raw materials that, when combined with such compounds, could contribute to the basic building blocks of life.

Meanwhile, the probe’s inadvertent double landing revealed to the team that the comet’s surface is varied–the initial touchdown was made on a soft area, but it ultimately ended up bouncing to a hard surface.

Discoveries aside, Philae continues to be unresponsive since the last communication on July 9th.