What will Rosetta look for to find out about the beginnings of life on Earth?
Previous studies by ESA’s Giotto spacecraft and ground-based observatories have shown that comets contain complex organic molecules. These are compounds that are rich in carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Intriguingly, these are the elements that make up nucleic acids and amino acids, essential ingredients for life as we know it. Although Rosetta may not give us a definitive answer to whether life on Earth began with ‘comet seeding’, it will provide a wealth of information. For example, the mass spectrometers on the orbiter and the lander will analyse, more precisely than ever before, the kind of organic molecules present in the comet. Laboratory simulations of interstellar processes showed that such instruments can detect a variety of amino acids.
