Asri-unix.492 net.space utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!mclure@SRI-UNIX Tue Jan 12 14:01:07 1982 life from comets a229 1300 12 Jan 82 AM-Life From Comets,500 Astronomer Says 'Seeding' Theory Gaining Acceptance By JACK A. SEAMONDS Associated Press Writer TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - An astrophysicist says there is growing acceptance of the theory that comets ''seeded'' a barren Earth billions of years ago with the ingredients for life. Dr. Armand Delsemme, a professor at the University of Toledo, said that during a meeting last week in Mountain View, Calif., a consensus of scientists agreed that the theory is growing as more is learned about the ''rich'' chemistry in outer space. He said the meeting at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Laboratory argued only about how - not whether - the ''seeding'' took place. ''Essentially, the elements in our bodies are 99.9 percent of the group including hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen,'' Delsemme said in an interview Monday. ''The same elements are found in the sea, but they are not found in the interior of the Earth.'' ''The question is, how did these elements get to Earth, where they clearly are in abundance? Where did the ocean itself come from? Through research in astronomy, we have found that all these same elements ... exist in outer space, and that with these fundamental elements we have the building blocks of life itself.'' He said astrophysicists have detected 52 interstellar molecules of organic compounds in space. ''In addition, we found that there are huge concentrations of water in space. In addition, we found what could be called two precursors of life, the compounds formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide. ''Starting with only these three molecules, we can make all the amino acids, which are the basic stones with which life is built,'' Delsemme said. The key link missing in the chain, he said, is linking the molecules to the development of life on Earth and, perhaps, on other planets. Also being sought, Delsemme said, are methods to detect whether amino acids themselves exist in space. ''We have found evidence of the lightest of these, glycine, and it is very likely we will find others once we can identify them with radio-telescopes,'' he said. Delsemme said that as the Earth was developing it was preiodically ''swept'' by comets' tails, which left cosmic dust that he believes carried the elements basic to life. Delsemme and other scientists speculate that the dust accounts for the Earth's crust, which is rich in nitrogen, hydrogen and other elements essential to agriculture. ''This gradual process would have been accomplished by 100 billion comets in a vast cloud surrounding our solar system,'' Delsemme said. The Earth's oceans are probably the result of melting the cosmic dust, which included large amounts of space ''frost,'' he said. ''If you consider the Earth has existed for more than 4 billion years, and life has been in existence on Earth for only a half-billion years, you see the development of life happened rather quickly,'' Delsemme said. ''Something almost automatic happened, but so far we don't know exactly how ... But I believe within the next 20 years ... we will know how it happened because of the advancements being made in the biological sciences and astronomy.'' ap-ny-01-12 1557EST ********** ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.