Ancient Organic Particles from Space Discovered in Antarctica

[Ian David]

A new family of extraterrestrial particles, probably of cometary origin, were discovered this spring by researchers from the Center for Nuclear Spectrometry and Mass Spectrometry (CSNSM) in central Antarctica. The micrometeorites, which are remarkably well preserved, are made up of organic matter containing small assemblages of minerals from the coldest and most remote regions of the Solar System. The team discovered two micrometeorites measuring no more than .003 inches and .01 inches across, "exhibiting a fine-grained, fluffy texture with no evidence for substantial heating during atmospheric entry."

The larger object is 85% carbon -the essential ingredient for the organic chemistry needed for life, and the smaller one is 48% carbon. Both contain higher-than-expected amounts of deuterium, a rare form of hydrogen, in a concentration 30 times higher than is usually found mixed with hydrogen on Earth -all elements common in interstellar clouds of dust in deep space, far more ancient than the sun. When the team used a microscope to examine the dust particles they also found tiny crystals which could only have been "condensed or processed at close distances from the young sun."

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Until now, only the US Stardust space mission had enabled international teams to carry out mineralogical and geochemical analysis of cometary grains. The micrometeorites discovered at Concordia show numerous similarities to the samples from the Stardust mission.

For the first time, they allow scientists to study extremely well preserved assemblages of minerals and organic material that were present beyond Jupiter's current orbit at the time when the Sun and the planets were being formed. Their chemical and isotopic composition should make it possible to comprehend the physical and chemical processes at work inside the disk of gas and dust that surrounded the early Sun 4.5 billion years ago.

More:
http://topicfire.com/share/Ancient-Organic-Particles-from-Space-Discovered-in-Antarctica-15528265.html

[flakey_foont]

1. at The Mountains of Madness, no doubt

- thanx and a tip 'o the hat to H.P. Lovecraft

[xchrom]

2. Pod people! -- except it turned into a nightmare of banality.

Invasion of the Cubicle people.

[htuttle]

3. "He was strangely convinced that the marking was the print of some bulky, unknown, and..."

"...radically unclassifiable organism of considerably advanced evolution, notwithstanding that the rock which bore it was of so vastly ancient a date - Cambrian if not actually pre-​Cambrian - as to preclude the probable existence not only of all highly evolved life, but of any life at all above the unicellular or at most the trilobite stage. These fragments, with their odd marking, must have been five hundred million to a thousand million years old."

I'm actually right in the middle of re-reading that for the first time in decades.

What a coincidence...
:yoiks:

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

4. Lovecraft meme is strengthening

I also just recently dug up my old Arkham House edition of The Mountains of Madness, and a short time later saw news online indicating that Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) is developing a direct adaptation of it. One hopes that Lovecraft will finally be treated fairly by an entertainment industry that has done nothing but rip off his oeuvre for decades. Heck, it's certainly been messing with my art lately:
http://ih3.redbubble.net/work.4759457.1.fp,375x360,black,off_white,flat30,s,ffffff.jpg

Huh, maybe the stars are right.