The collapse exposes comet ices to sunlight for the first time, which causes the ice chunks to begin sublimating immediately.
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The DLR team will send a command on Sunday, July 5, to Philae to switch on the experiment in a bid to check that Rosetta can still talk to the probe it sent to a bounced landing on November 12, 2014. Churyumov-Gerasimenko or more commonly known as Comet 67P has a rich organic black crust under its icy surface and this is what is leading scientists to believe that there could be the presence if living organisms.
The comet has a black hydrocarbon crust overlaying ice, smooth icy “seas”, and flat-bottomed craters containing “lakes” of re-frozen water overlain with organic debris.
Computer simulations have suggested microbes could inhabit the comet’s watery regions.
The organisms were able to survive the comet’s harsh environment by possessing anti-freeze salts to adapt to temperatures below -40 degrees Celsius.
Wickramasinghe interpreted the data received from the comet as proving that micro-organisms are “involved in the formation of the icy structures, the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very dark surface”.
“These are not easily explained in terms of prebiotic chemistry”, Prof Wickramasinghe said.
Rosetta, the European spacecraft orbiting the comet, is also said to have picked up unusual “clusters” of organic material that resemble viral particles.
“The dark material is being constantly replenished as it is boiled off by heat from the Sunday”.
He also adds that Rosetta already obtained evidence that the comet supports geological processes that can be conducive for microbial life compared to the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Moreover, the two astronomers revealed that an earlier proposal to equip the mission with the right technology to detect life was reportedly dismissed as a joke. I think it’s inevitable that life is going to be a cosmic phenomenon.
Professor Wickramasinghe was one of the scientists who helped with the drafting of the mission some 15 years ago.
“Five hundred years ago it was a struggle to have people accept that the Earth was not the centre of the universe”, he said.
Even after scientific proof showed that this is not the case, most people still have a thinking style that is very much Earth-centered, especially when talking about concepts such as “life” and “biology”.
“A number of the dust jets emerging from Rosetta’s comet can be traced back to active pits that were likely formed by a sudden collapse of the surface”, a statement from the ESA reads.
In the middle of June, Philae reawakened, after recharging its solar panels, and reported back.
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Wallis will present his ideas to the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno today, at which he will argue that Rosetta’s discovery of “abundant complex organic molecules on the surface of the comet”, are further evidence for possible life on the comet, The Independent reports. It is now about 176.7 million miles from Earth and travelling at more than 73,000 mph.
