Study finds comet impacts would have destroyed most organic molecules
2 Oct 28 · 11d ago · 2 articles · 1 post · 1 comment · 2 sources · development 2 of 3
The research shows that comets striking early Earth would have moved too fast and at angles too steep for HCN and other prebiotic molecules to survive the immense heat of impact. Computer models indicate only comets wider than about 300 feet could make it through Earth's early atmosphere without burning up.
“It would really have to be a one-in-a-million occurrence. We can't rule out for certain that it happened that way. But it seems to be a really rare occurrence — at best, a one-off fluke.”
Richard AnslowRichard Anslow Lead author, Cambridge astronomerUniversity of Cambridge research team Study authors
The whole story articlespostscomments the bright band is this development · numbered dots are the others · click one to jump
Reported in the same hours no headline names this development itself — these 1 claim were published in its stretch
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first by Forbes, 11d ago · also Nanowerk
1 more headline
- Comets probably didn't seed life on Earth after all, new study suggests Nanowerk · 11d ago
What people said 1 voice · verbatim
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Is this a statistical assessment and am I stupid for asking that if they’re on earth, they should be on the moon too? I bring up the moon because these compounds would have been destroyed anyway when the moon collided with earth.
All 3 developments of Cambridge study: comets likely didn't seed life on Earth →
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