Scientists declare meteor from 40 years ago "organic molecular feast"

[Da6s]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/8516319.stm

Scientists say that a meteorite that crashed into Earth 40 years ago contains millions of different carbon-containing, or organic, molecules.
Although they are not a sign of life, such organic compounds are life's building blocks, and are a sign of conditions in the early Solar System.
It is thought the Murchison meteorite could even be older than the Sun.
The results of the meteorite study are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We are really excited. When I first studied it and saw the complexity I was so amazed," said Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, lead researcher on the study from the Institute for Ecological Chemistry in Neuherberg, Germany.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Awesome!

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Let me be the first to say, "No shit!"

I mean, really, did anyone (who was not a massive idiot and/or ignorant) honestly believe that we are the only life ever to exist? It's pretty fucking improbable.

[Requia ☣]

Um, this isn't life, its organic molecules.  It's about as alive as a lump of plastic.

[Triple Zero]

I mean, really, did anyone (who was not a massive idiot and/or ignorant) honestly believe that we are the only life ever to exist? It's pretty fucking improbable.

It's easy to forget the scale of the universe in reasoning like that.

It is indeed pretty fucking improbable that we're the only life to ever exist anywhere. Given that the universe is pretty fucking unimaginably huge.

However, so far, especially without mega alien technology, organic matter compounds do not travel on their own at speeds coming anywhere close the speed of light.

Like in this example, they have to sit on meteors. Which go pretty fast, but if you calculate in the extreme distances, and the age of the universe, galaxy or solar system, suddenly the odds of two previously separate forms of life ever come into contact with eachother [without technology] become pretty improbable themselves.

Let's just say, it's improbable that we're the only life in the universe. But that doesn't automatically make it probable that we're ever going to as much as see that other life.

So yes, that does make this meteor kind of amazing.

[Kai]

Um, this isn't life, its organic molecules.  It's about as alive as a lump of plastic.

This. All the basic "building blocks of life" can form under abiotic conditions, things like amino acids, nucleic acids, ribose and deoxyribose and phospholipids.