Halley Harry Kroto 2004 Hale-Bopp Stromboli Observatory Harry Kroto 2004 Align the spectrometer slit across the split tail Harry Kroto 2004 Align the spectrometer slit across the split tail Charged species tail Dust and neutral species tail Harry Kroto 2004 Align the spectrometer slit across the split tail Charged species tail Harry Kroto 2004 Align the spectrometer slit across the split tail Charged species tail Dust and neutral species tail Harry Kroto 2004 Align the spectrometer slit across the split tail Charged species tail Dust and neutral species tail H2O+H2O+ NH 2 Harry Kroto 2004 The Giotto mission to Halleys comet Giottos mass-spectrometer used to analyse ablated material from Halleys comet Harry Kroto 2004 NASA Comet image Harry Kroto 2004 R(0) P(1) CN Violet Electronic Emission Spectrum 3883 4216 4606 R BranchP Branch cm -1 Rotational Structure of the 0-0 band of CN at 3883 observed from Comet Bennett (1970 II) cm Harry Kroto 2004 Halley Harry Kroto 2004 The circumstantial evidence suggests that the carbon chains aggregate to form closed cages presumably by ring cyclisation addition reactions. The closed cages can grow until C 60 and or C 70 form which are interim dead ends Possible v probable ? Everything might be possible but we need to discover if it is probable e.g. Halleys comet work Now life may or may not be extraordinary and so may be life elsewhere Humes Maxim No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle (or anything extraordinary), unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous (or extraordinary) than that which it endeavours to establish. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 1758 Did Life came from Space? Giotto data random mixture of fragmented molecules S. P. Balm, J. P. Hare & H. W. Kroto, Space Science Reviews, 1991, 56, Giotto data random mixture of fragmented molecules S. P. Balm, J. P. Hare & H. W. Kroto, Space Science Reviews, 1991, 56, The wider view not seeing the wood for the trees CCCCCC2 Bacteria in Space? It is important to be very clear about what Hoyles novel claim actually was. It was NOT that Life came from Space - this is a very old idea Analysis of mass spectrometric data from the Giotto mission to Halleys comet (1986) Formaldehyde polymer (polyoxymethylene) O CH 2 O CH 2 O CH 2 O D. L. Mitchell et al. Science, 1987, 237, 626 W. F Hueber, Science, 1987, 237, 628 Formaldehyde O CH 2 O CH 2 O CH 2 Fragmentation of Formaldehyde polymer CH 2 O O CH 2 O CH 2 O CH 2 O CH 2 O CH 2 O CH 2 O CH 2 Giotto mission mass spectrometric data (source: NASA) Urey and Miller Experiment Use the products of this expt. as a typical random mixture S. L. Miller, Science 1953, 117, 528 Urey and Miller Experiment Use the products of this expt. as a typical random mixture S. L. Miller, Science 1953, 117, 528 If we have a 1 D Lego kit with blocks of basic weight 14 CH2 15 N 16 O We would expect chains with mass some multiple of 15 Which is what we observe Halleys comet is most likely to be composed of a mixture of CHON* / organic molecules mass spec data of this kind can not be used to unequivocally assign the Formaldehyde polymer (* CHON molecules composed of C, H, O and N atoms)