Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
that organic molecules originated in space (perhaps to be distributed to Earth) [14] that life originated from these molecules, extraterrestrially [8] that this extraterrestrial life was transported to Earth. [19] The creation and distribution of organic molecules from space is now uncontroversial; it is known as pseudo-panspermia. The jump ...
Water is one of the simplest molecules, composed of one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, and can be found in all celestial bodies of the solar system. However, water is only useful for life in a liquid state, and extraterrestrial water is commonly found as water vapor or ice. Liquid water also has several properties that are beneficial for lifeforms.
Water can persist at higher temperatures than normal in the form of hydrated minerals: those minerals which can bind water molecules at the crystalline level. Salts, including halite (table salt, NaCl) are ionic and attract individual, polar water molecules with electrostatic forces. Alternately, the parent mineral may be e. g., sulfate, and ...
Most of the molecules detected so far are organic. The only detected inorganic molecule with five or more atoms is SiH 4. [14] Molecules larger than that all have at least one carbon atom, with no N−N or O−O bonds. [14] Carbon monoxide is frequently used to trace the distribution of mass in molecular clouds. [15]
Today, scientists agree that all current life descends from earlier life, which has become progressively more complex and diverse through Charles Darwin's mechanism of evolution by natural selection. Darwin wrote to J.D. Hooker on 29 March 1863 stating that "It is mere rubbish, thinking at present of the origin of life; one might as well think ...
The term outward space existed in a poem from 1842 by the English poet Lady Emmeline Stuart-Wortley called "The Maiden of Moscow", [13] but in astronomy the term outer space found its application for the first time in 1845 by Alexander von Humboldt. [14] The term was eventually popularized through the writings of H. G. Wells after 1901. [15]
On Wednesday, Aug. 7, the agency held a news conference giving an update on the two astronauts who have been in outer space for 63 days — approximately seven weeks longer than expected ...
One factor in estimating when water appeared on Earth is that water is continually being lost to space. H 2 O molecules in the atmosphere are broken up by photolysis, and the resulting free hydrogen atoms can sometimes escape Earth's gravitational pull. When the Earth was younger and less massive, water