The Rosetta spacecraft was the first mission to enter orbit around a comet, its subject: 67P/Churyumov–GerasimenkoESA

Researchers have detected phosphorus on a comet – thereby completing the grocery list of elements that are essential for life. The discovery was made in data from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta probe a few years ago, strengthening the idea that life’s ingredients were delivered to Earth by comets.

Six chemical elements make up almost all biological molecules on Earth: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur (CHNOPS). How our home planet managed to become so bountiful in all of them has long been a mystery, but one of the leading hypotheses is that they were brought here long ago by comets, asteroids, and impacts with proto-planets.

The first four are simple enough – they’re the main ingredients of carbonaceous asteroids, the most common type of space rock in our neighborhood. Sulfur turned up during a chemical analysis of comet 67P’s gassy coma, which according to ESA would give it a pungent rotten egg smell.

That left just phosphorus. Previous studies have suggested that this element, crucial for making the compound that our cells use to store and transfer energy, is relatively rare across the universe. And without it, life may not emerge very easily.

Now, the stuff has finally been found on a comet. A new study, led by the University of Turku in Finland, made the discovery by analyzing data from the Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer (COSIMA) instrument onboard Rosetta. The instrument collected dust particles from the coma of comet 67P, photographed them, and measured them using a mass spectrometer.

In those solid particles, the team detected minerals containing phosphorus ions. This first-time discovery marks the last required CHNOPS element to be found in a comet, lending weight to the hypothesis that these icy objects were responsible for delivering the ingredients of life to Earth, billions of years ago. They’ve also been proposed to be the source of other vital compounds, such as amino acids and “ocean-like” water.

The team also detected fluorine in the dust, in the form of CF+ secondary ions. Exactly what role it plays in the comet’s environment remains unknown, but the researchers say it’s a curious find nonetheless.

The research was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

https://newatlas.com/space/phosphorus-comet-67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-rosetta/

There you are then.

Bubblecar said:

There you are then.

That be.

PermeateFree said:

The Rosetta spacecraft was the first mission to enter orbit around a comet, its subject: 67P/Churyumov–GerasimenkoESA

Researchers have detected phosphorus on a comet – thereby completing the grocery list of elements that are essential for life. The discovery was made in data from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta probe a few years ago, strengthening the idea that life’s ingredients were delivered to Earth by comets.

Six chemical elements make up almost all biological molecules on Earth: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur (CHNOPS). How our home planet managed to become so bountiful in all of them has long been a mystery, but one of the leading hypotheses is that they were brought here long ago by comets, asteroids, and impacts with proto-planets.

The first four are simple enough – they’re the main ingredients of carbonaceous asteroids, the most common type of space rock in our neighborhood. Sulfur turned up during a chemical analysis of comet 67P’s gassy coma, which according to ESA would give it a pungent rotten egg smell.

That left just phosphorus. Previous studies have suggested that this element, crucial for making the compound that our cells use to store and transfer energy, is relatively rare across the universe. And without it, life may not emerge very easily.

Now, the stuff has finally been found on a comet. A new study, led by the University of Turku in Finland, made the discovery by analyzing data from the Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer (COSIMA) instrument onboard Rosetta. The instrument collected dust particles from the coma of comet 67P, photographed them, and measured them using a mass spectrometer.

In those solid particles, the team detected minerals containing phosphorus ions. This first-time discovery marks the last required CHNOPS element to be found in a comet, lending weight to the hypothesis that these icy objects were responsible for delivering the ingredients of life to Earth, billions of years ago. They’ve also been proposed to be the source of other vital compounds, such as amino acids and “ocean-like” water.

The team also detected fluorine in the dust, in the form of CF+ secondary ions. Exactly what role it plays in the comet’s environment remains unknown, but the researchers say it’s a curious find nonetheless.

The research was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

https://newatlas.com/space/phosphorus-comet-67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-rosetta/

jest add water, stir and
warm in a moderate oven
for between 35 and 40 minutes
rotating once at the half way mark

> Researchers have detected phosphorus on a comet

Not before? Surprised.

> That left just phosphorus. Previous studies have suggested that this element, crucial for making the compound that our cells use to store and transfer energy, is relatively rare across the universe. And without it, life may not emerge very easily.

I like that sentence!

Not saying either “necessary for life” or “necessary for DNA”, a plus on both counts.

Yes, phosphorus forms an energy storage and transfer in AMP and ATP. Both of which would have been around long before RNA and DNA. It’s a more subtle energy storage than both fats and carbohydrates. This subtlety is a big help in giving life as we know it a leg up.

> made the discovery by analyzing data from the Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer (COSIMA) instrument onboard Rosetta. The instrument collected dust particles from the coma of comet 67P, photographed them, and measured them using a mass spectrometer. In those solid particles, the team detected minerals containing phosphorus ions.

They don’t actually say “phosphate minerals”. Do they yet know if it’s phosphate?

Phosphorus chemicals already observed in interstellar and circumstellar space include:
CP, PN, PO, C2P, HCP
with unconfirmed reports of PH3 and NCCP.

so a discovery of PO4 would be very significant.

https://sci-hub.st/https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/499/2/1870/5911597
The journal article rules out Ca5(PO4)3, apatite, as the source of phosphorus.

“P+ is particularly challenging, as it yields signals over an order of magnitude lower than Fe+. The main focus in this study was to find various ionic species of phosphorus present in TOF-SIMS spectra. We look for PO−X in negative spectra, ionic P in negative and positive spectra and any other phosphorus associated compounds.”

“PH+3 (phosphine) and PH+4 (hydrogenated phosphine) were absent from any analysed individual and summed positive spectra.”

“This marks the first detection of both CF+ and P+ in solid cometary dust.”

“We searched for the signal of PO2−and PO3−in the cometary particles, but as the background spectra present a quite high signal of PO2− and PO3−, there was no clear contribution of the cometary particles to these ions to be found. We could not find a clear cometary contribution of PO2−and PO3−.”

Background spectra? What do they mean by this?

“fluoroapatite and schreibersite (Fe,Ni)3P. Both of these belong to families known to be found in meteorites. The first reference sample, fluoroapatite, Ca5(PO4)3F contains oxidized phosphorus. … We do not see calcium in significant amounts in the cometary dust samples, so the phosphorus likely cannot be explained by apatite-like minerals.”

Who is Fred?

Ogmog said:

PermeateFree said:

The Rosetta spacecraft was the first mission to enter orbit around a comet, its subject: 67P/Churyumov–GerasimenkoESA

Researchers have detected phosphorus on a comet – thereby completing the grocery list of elements that are essential for life. The discovery was made in data from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta probe a few years ago, strengthening the idea that life’s ingredients were delivered to Earth by comets.

Six chemical elements make up almost all biological molecules on Earth: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur (CHNOPS). How our home planet managed to become so bountiful in all of them has long been a mystery, but one of the leading hypotheses is that they were brought here long ago by comets, asteroids, and impacts with proto-planets.
< snip/>
The research was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

https://newatlas.com/space/phosphorus-comet-67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-rosetta/

jest add water, stir and
warm in a moderate oven
for between 35 and 40 minutes
rotating once at the half way mark

shoulda’ sed;

jest add water, stir and
warm in a moderate oven
between 35 and 40 millennia
rotating once at the half way mark

Ogmog said:

Ogmog said:

PermeateFree said:

The Rosetta spacecraft was the first mission to enter orbit around a comet, its subject: 67P/Churyumov–GerasimenkoESA

The research was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

https://newatlas.com/space/phosphorus-comet-67p-churyumov-gerasimenko-rosetta/

jest add water, stir and
warm in a moderate oven
for between 35 and 40 minutes
rotating once at the half way mark

shoulda’ sed;

jest add water, stir and
warm in a moderate oven
between 35 and 40 millennia
rotating once at the half way mark

still just a geological blink of an eye

SCIENCE said:

Ogmog said:

Ogmog said:

jest add water, stir and
warm in a moderate oven
for between 35 and 40 minutes
rotating once at the half way mark

shoulda’ sed;

jest add water, stir and
warm in a moderate oven
between 35 and 40 millennia
rotating once at the half way mark

still just a geological blink of an eye

Just a blink.

mollwollfumble said:

Yes, phosphorus forms an energy storage and transfer in AMP and ATP. Both of which would have been around long before RNA and DNA. It’s a more subtle energy storage than both fats and carbohydrates. This subtlety is a big help in giving life as we know it a leg up.

Considering the nature of oxidative phosphorylation, it becomes evident that there are different forms of chemical energy, and they are not readily interchangeable.

The energy in fats and carbohydrates can be regarded as redox energy, whereas the energy of ATP is anhydride energy. The bulk of the energy requirement of a cell is anhydride energy, whereas the available energy source is mostly redox energy. So, it is imperative that a cell find a way to convert redox energy to anhydride energy.

How a cell accomplishes this involves no direct chemical connection between the redox reactions and the formation of ATP, but instead a physical coupling between the two chemical reactions. On the redox side of the coupling, a quinone is reduced to a quinol on one side of a membrane, which picks up two hydrogen ions. The quinol transports to the other side of the membrane where it is oxidised back to the quinone, releasing the two hydrogen ions. The quinone then transports back across the membrane to repeat the process The net process is the transfer of hydrogen ions from one side of the membrane to the other side, creating a concentration difference that physically stores energy. This energy drives the passage of hydrogen ions through a channel in the membrane protein ATPase that results in the conversion of ADP and phosphate to ATP on the anhydride side of the coupling.

The process is reversible, but is driven in the direction of the formation of ATP by the energy produced by oxidising organic molecules and reducing elemental oxygen.