are we alien ? Building block of life found on comet

it's an article from reuters Los Angels Tue Aug 18, 2009

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that raw ingredients of life arrived on Earth from outer space, scientists said on Monday. Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004.

www.reuters.com...

"The discovery of glycine in a comet supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space, and strengthens the argument that life in the universe may be common rather than rare," said Carl Pilcher, the director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute in California, which co-funded the research.

i have the feeling that we are getting closer and closer ... what's next .


[edit on 19-8-2009 by pitchdragon]

Yup, getting close.

About your topic question, to other forms of life (all but earth ones), yes we are aliens.

We are all made up out of spacedust.

Well, at least all life in the universe except me (and the psychodude locked in an interdimensional vortex 324 spacial years away from the Zeta Reticulous system.

Euh...back on topic.
What it says is that one of the elements that made the primordial soup of life on earth exists in space as well. it SUPPORTS (not proves) the theory that at least SOME elements that made our first living cell came from space. Shouldn't be much of a surprise thou, since there is so much space and so little mud...ehr...earth to go around.

No aliens involved in that stage (well, not that direct that it could be called on purpose anyways)

[edit on 19-8-2009 by AncientShade]

Originally posted by pitchdragon
i have the feeling that we are getting closer and closer ... what's next .

Of course there are all kinds of "building blocks" for life, pretty much wherever you point your telescope.

The problem is that you can slosh these blocks around in water for billions of years, and there's no guarantee that stuff will magically form itself into a living thing. Hey, you can even use a shortcut, and take raw DNA molecules, already formed, and spin them around, and it won't necessarily form life, either.

It would be like taking all of the little bits and pieces out of a computer and putting them in a box and shaking them around. What do you think the odds would be that it would eventually just fall into the proper configuration and be a completely functioning computer, with all the software and electricity humming along, too? Probably pretty high, if not practically impossible.

Yeah. There's an answer to the question. But I'll let you figure it out on your own. (And no, it doesn't involved any kind of Grandpa in the Sky.)