Tuesday, December 5, 2006

The monster with the great set of jaws and more meteorite stuff

The monster with the great set of jaws
Dunkleosteus terrelli
see
Snap!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/science/05observ.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
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also more about meteorites information further down on the page

Carbaneous chondrite meteorites haave carbon bearing materials. Carbon based materials are the building blocks of life on Earth. So it stands to reason, carbon based material may have caused curious possibilities in early earth bombardmends.

Organic meteorites

Similar globules were first noticed in a meteorite in 1961 and have since been seen in a few other carbonaceous chondrites. But until now there has been no way to adequately analyze them.
The NASA scientists used a mass spectrometer with a tiny probe and found that the globules contained carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen. Isotopic analysis of the nitrogen and hydrogen determined that the globules had probably formed at temperatures approaching absolute zero.
That finding, the researchers say, means that the globules probably were created in the outer reaches of the developing solar system or in the molecular cloud that became the Sun. The researchers suggest that if, as is thought, Earth was bombarded by these kinds of meteorites early in its history, such globules may have helped “seed” the planet with organic compounds that led to life.

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