Press Release: Do Micro-organisms Explain Features on Comets?

Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, studied in detail by the European Space Agency Rosetta and Philae spacecraft since September 2014, is a body with distinct and unexpected features. Now two astronomers have a radical explanation for its properties – micro-organisms that shape cometary activity. Dr Max Wallis of the University of Cardiff set out their ideas today (Monday 6 July) at the National Astronomy Meeting at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Wales.
A close up image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken at a distance of 130 km using the OSIRIS camera on the Rosetta spacecraft. A range of features, including boulders, craters and steep cliffs are clearly visible. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.Rosetta data have revealed an irregular ‘duck shaped’ comet with about 4.3 by 4.1 km in extent. It appears to have a black crust and underlying ice and images show large, smooth ‘seas’, flat-bottomed craters and a surface peppered with mega-boulders. The crater lakes are re-frozen bodies of water overlain with organic debris. Parallel furrows relate to the flexing of the asymmetric and spinning double-lobed body, which generates fractures in the ice beneath.
Dr Wallis, and his colleague Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, argue that these features are all consistent with a mixture of ice and organic material that consolidate under the sun’s warming during the comet’s orbiting in space, when active micro-organisms can be supported.
In their model, the micro-organisms probably require liquid water bodies to colonise the comet and could inhabit cracks in its ice and ‘snow’. Organisms containing anti-freeze salts are particularly good at adapting to these conditions and some could be active at temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius.
Sunlit areas of P/67 Churyumov-Gerasimenko have approached this temperature last September, when at 500 million km from the Sun and weak gas emissions were evident.  As it travels to its closest point to the Sun – perihelion at 195 million km – the temperature is rising, gassing increasing and the micro-organisms should become increasingly active.
Dr Wallis said: “Rosetta has already shown that the comet is not to be seen as a deep-frozen inactive body, but supports geological processes and could be more hospitable to micro-life than our Arctic and Antarctic regions”.
Wallis and Wickramasinghe cite further evidence for life in the detection by Philae of abundant complex organic molecules on the surface of the comet and in the infrared images taken by Rosetta.
Professor Wickramasinghe commented: “If the Rosetta orbiter has found evidence of life on the comet, it would be a fitting tribute to mark the centenary of the birth of Sir Fred Hoyle, one of the undisputable pioneers of astrobiology.”

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Images and captions

An image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at a distance of 285 km. The images were made using the OSIRIS camera on the Rosetta spacecraft. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

A close up image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken at a distance of 130 km using the OSIRIS camera on the Rosetta spacecraft. A range of features, including boulders, craters and steep cliffs are clearly visible. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

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Media contacts

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)794 124 8035
rm@ras.org.uk
Ms Anita Heward
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7756 034 243
anitaheward@btinternet.com
Dr Sam Lindsay
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7957 566 861
sl@ras.org.uk

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Science contacts

Dr Max Wallis
University of Cardiff
WallisMK@cardiff.ac.uk
Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe
Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology
University of Buckingham
ncwick@gmail.com


The above text is taken from a press release posted on the Royal Astronomical Society website and is reproduced here for educational purposes only.

First image credit: Reuters/ESA

Expect Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life to Look Something Like Us, Says Biologist

A leading biologist has claimed "we are not alone" arguing that extra-terrestrials resembling humans must have evolved on other planets.

Evolutionary biologist Simon Conway Morris says that evidence that different species will independently develop similar features means that life similar to that on Earth would also develop on other, equivalent planets.

This theory, known as convergence, suggests evolution is far from random but in fact a predictable process which follows a rigid set of rules.

It means that popular depictions of aliens with an appearance similar to humans - such as the character in the hit 1980s' film ET - may not be far from the truth.

Professor Conway Morris added that, given the growing number of Earth-like planets now discovered by astronomers, it is surprising that we have not yet discovered aliens which look and sound like us.

He added: "I would argue that in any habitable zone that doesn't boil or freeze, intelligent life is going to emerge, because intelligence is convergent.

"One can say with reasonable confidence that the likelihood of something analogous to a human evolving is really pretty high.

"And given the number of potential planets that we now have good reason to think exist, even if the dice only come up the right way every one in 100 throws, that still leads to a very large number of intelligences scattered around, that are likely to be similar to us."

Prof Conway Morris, a fellow at St John's College, Cambridge, puts forward the argument in his new book The Runes Of Evolution.

He argues that convergence is not just common, but everywhere, and that it has governed every aspect of life's development on Earth.

Proteins, eyes, limbs, intelligence, tool-making - even our capacity to experience orgasms - are, he argues, inevitable once life emerges.

"Often, research into convergence is accompanied by exclamations of surprise, describing it as uncanny, remarkable and astonishing," Prof Conway Morris said.

"In fact it is everywhere, and that is a remarkable indication that evolution is far from a random process.

"If the outcomes of evolution are at least broadly predictable, then what applies on Earth will apply across the Milky Way, and beyond."

He has previously raised the prospect that alien life, if out there, would resemble earthlings - with limbs, heads, and bodies.

His new book goes further adding that any Earth-like planet should also evolve predators like sharks, pitcher plants, mangroves, and mushrooms, among many other things.

Limbs, brains and intelligence would, similarly, be "almost guaranteed".

The traits of human-like intelligence have evolved in other species - the octopus and some birds, for example, both exhibit social playfulness - and this, the book suggests, indicates that intelligence is an inevitable consequence of evolution that would characterise extra-terrestrials as well.

Text courtesy of Press Association.

Image copyright of Columbia Pictures.