Silica Aerogel Captures Amino Acid from Comet

The famous Stardust mission–the space probe that used a special “catcher’s mitt” comprised of silica aerogel panels to capture particles from the comet Wild 2 (say “Vilt Too”)–has surprised us again. NASA scientists have discovered the amino acid glycine present in the aerogel tiles and on the aluminum grid in which the aerogel is embedded. The ratio of ¹³C to ¹²C is different than if you were to sample glycine from Earth, indicating in fact the amino acid came from the comet.

“Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet,” said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Our discovery supports the theory that some of life’s ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts.”

“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 Dr. Carl Pilcher, Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which partially funded the research.

This Wednesday Aerogel.org will be featuring a special hour-long podcast from Dr. Peter Tsou, the principal investigator of the Stardust mission, with some interesting perspectives on science and making stuff possible. You won’t want to miss this first episode in our series “The People Who Reinvented Aerogel”.

Read the NASA press release here.