SETI public: Fw: Is life the rule or the exception? The answer may be in the interstellar clo

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From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Tue May 28 2002 - 12:11:53 PDT

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----- Original Message -----
From: science.webmaster@esa.int
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 10:27 AM
To: ljk4@msn.com
Subject: Is life the rule or the exception? The answer may be in the interstellar clouds

Is life a highly improbable event, or is it rather the inevitable
consequence of a rich chemical soup available everywhere in the
cosmos? Scientists have recently found new evidence that amino acids,
the 'building-blocks' of life, can form not only in comets and asteroids,
but also in the interstellar space. This result is consistent with
(although of course does not prove) the theory that the main ingredients
for life came from outer space, and therefore that chemical processes
leading to life are likely to have occurred elsewhere. This reinforces
the interest in an already 'hot' research field, astrochemistry.
ESA's forthcoming missions Rosetta and Herschel will provide a wealth
of new information for this topic.