The underlying data here comes from the Ptolemy instrument, a gas chromatograph mass-spectrometer (ion trap, in this case) which can measure ratios of molecules in a range of 14 to 140 Da. (It might also be able to identify somewhat larger species by inducing fragmentation and measuring the resulting pattern of smaller molecules within the effective mass range, but I haven't found if this capability was included).<p>Some more info here:
<a href="http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1937.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1937.pdf</a><p>and: <a href="http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/31445-instruments/?fbodylongid=896" rel="nofollow">http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/31445-instruments/?fbodylongid=89...</a><p>The instrument has its own Twitter feed, of course: <a href="https://twitter.com/philae_ptolemy" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/philae_ptolemy</a>
Personally I think the idea that life/prebiotic soup came to earth on a comet is suspect, for the reasons explained in these blog posts and the links therein:<p><a href="http://sandwalk.blogspot.ca/2011/11/nasa-confusion-about-origin-of-life.html" rel="nofollow">http://sandwalk.blogspot.ca/2011/11/nasa-confusion-about-ori...</a><p><a href="http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2009/04/can-watery-asteroids-explain-why-life.html" rel="nofollow">http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2009/04/can-watery-asteroids-ex...</a><p>Two problems with the 'organic asteroid' theory are the 'racemization problem' (how to explain why life only uses L isomers rather than both the L and D isomers present in meteorites), and the fact that the amount of organic matter in meteors is tiny. Compare that to the opportunities for life to arise on earth in its diverse chemical environments.<p>See the calculations by Jeffrey Bada discussed in the second link.
Oh interesting:<p>> Once the rechargeable secondary battery has been warmed by sunlight again, Philae will restart and the DLR LCC team will take their places at the control consoles again.<p>This is the first I've heard that Philae can wake back up. I was under the impression that it had no solar capabilities whatsoever, and that the battery was the only power it had available.
"Scientists are analyzing the data to see whether the organic compounds detected by Philae are simple ones—such as methane and methanol—or a more complex species such as amino acids"<p>I feel like there is a big difference between finding methane and finding amino acids on the comet. Surely, finding methane isn't all that interesting.
We hearing that hopefully when it warms up and gets closer to the sun it will wake up and start transmitting again.<p>Do they have an estimate of when it will be destroyed because it's too close to the sun?
Google redirect without paywall: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCEQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Frosetta-probe-directly-discovers-organic-molecules-on-comet-1416256078&ei=TXZrVIfBEY3daLOOgeAN&usg=AFQjCNG59ouzNU_aXv7JBhhdGm4bBDCK5Q&sig2=0BaHL0tkVGarc5Hn7eEzNA&bvm=bv.79908130,d.d2s" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...</a>
The fact that exciting scientific discoveries like this are being presented on WSJ behind a paywall is absurd. Science on the internet is going to be dramatically different in 10 years than it is right now...
Url changed from <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/rosetta-probe-directly-discovers-organic-molecules-on-comet-1416256078" rel="nofollow">http://online.wsj.com/articles/rosetta-probe-directly-discov...</a> because that one is behind a paywall and this one is a more original source.