Sunday, December 03, 2006

higgledy-piggledy is a word ya know


This meteorite, approximately 4.5 billion years old (the age of our Sun and solar system), is not that important.

What IS important is the organic matter inside the meteorite, which is apparently older than the meteorite itself.

From the National Geographic article:
"What's really striking about this is that these globules clearly could not possibly have formed where [the meteorite] itself formed," Messenger said.

"Under those extreme conditions the air that you'd breathe would be solid ice. You would never find those conditions in the asteroid belt or anywhere close to the sun."

. . .

The meteorite likely formed in the outer reaches of the asteroid belt, but the organic material it contains probably had a far more distant origin.


Keep in mind that organic != life. But it's a possibility that could explain the origins of life on Earth. That, of course, or some sort of omnipotent being who looks like a ape and decided to create beings all higgledy-piggledy in His own image, because He's just that self-centered and confused.

No comments: