ALBERT

Description: Molecular nitrogen (N2) is thought to have been the most abundant form of nitrogen in the protosolar nebula. It is the main N-bearing molecule in the atmospheres of Pluto and Triton and probably the main nitrogen reservoir from which the giant planets formed. Yet in comets, often considered the most primitive bodies in the solar system, N2 has not been detected. Here we report the direct in situ measurement of N2 in the Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, made by the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis mass spectrometer aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. A N2/CO ratio of (5.70 +/- 0.66) x 10(-3) (2sigma standard deviation of the sampled mean) corresponds to depletion by a factor of ~25.4 +/- 8.9 as compared to the protosolar value. This depletion suggests that cometary grains formed at low-temperature conditions below ~30 kelvin.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Rubin, M -- Altwegg, K -- Balsiger, H -- Bar-Nun, A -- Berthelier, J-J -- Bieler, A -- Bochsler, P -- Briois, C -- Calmonte, U -- Combi, M -- De Keyser, J -- Dhooghe, F -- Eberhardt, P -- Fiethe, B -- Fuselier, S A -- Gasc, S -- Gombosi, T I -- Hansen, K C -- Hassig, M -- Jackel, A -- Kopp, E -- Korth, A -- Le Roy, L -- Mall, U -- Marty, B -- Mousis, O -- Owen, T -- Reme, H -- Semon, T -- Tzou, C-Y -- Waite, J H -- Wurz, P -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Apr 10;348(6231):232-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa6100. Epub 2015 Mar 19.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. martin.rubin@space.unibe.ch. ; Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse. 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. ; Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. ; Department of Geoscience, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv, Israel. ; Laboratoire Atmospheres, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS)/Institute Pierre Simon Laplace-CNRS-UPMC-UVSQ, 4 Avenue de Neptune F-94100, Saint-Maur, France. ; Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. ; Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E), UMR 6115 CNRS-Universite d'Orleans, Orleans, France. ; Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. ; Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimte-Aeronomie-Institut d'Aeronomie Spatiale de Belgique (BIRA-IASB), Ringlaan 3, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium. ; Institute of Computer and Network Engineering, Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Hans-Sommer-Strasse 66, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany. ; Department of Space Science, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78228, USA. ; Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. Department of Space Science, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78228, USA. ; Max-Planck-Institut fur Sonnensystemforschung, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Gottingen, Germany. ; Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse. 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. ; Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (CRPG)-CNRS, Universite de Lorraine, 15 rue Notre Dame des Pauvres, Boite Postale 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre les Nancy, France. ; Aix Marseille Universite, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille UMR 7326, 13388, Marseille, France. ; Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. ; Universite de Toulouse; UPS-OMP; Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie (IRAP), Toulouse, France. CNRS; IRAP; 9 Avenue du Colonel Roche, Boite Postale 44346, F-31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25791084" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The importance of comets for the origin of life on Earth has been advocated for many decades. Amino acids are key ingredients in chemistry, leading to life as we know it. Many primitive meteorites contain amino acids, and it is generally believed that these are formed by aqueous alterations. In the collector aerogel and foil samples of the Stardust mission after the flyby at comet Wild 2, the simplest form of amino acids, glycine, has been found together with precursor molecules methylamine and ethylamine. Because of contamination issues of the samples, a cometary origin was deduced from the 13 C isotopic signature. We report the presence of volatile glycine accompanied by methylamine and ethylamine in the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko measured by the ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) mass spectrometer, confirming the Stardust results. Together with the detection of phosphorus and a multitude of organic molecules, this result demonstrates that comets could have played a crucial role in the emergence of life on Earth.