Icy Red Objects at Solar System's Edge May Point to Life's BuildingBlocks

SPACE.com -- Icy Red Objects at Solar System's Edge May Point to Life's
Building Blocks
"The reddish hue of many objects in our solar system's frigid outer
reaches may be evidence of complex organic molecules, perhaps even the
building blocks of life, new research suggests.

Scientists have come up with a computer model to explain the many colors
— the reds, whites and blues— found in the Kuiper Belt, the swath of icy
bodies circling the sun with Pluto. The model suggests that Kuiper Belt
objects have many layers, and that the reds could come from organic
materials in a layer near the surface. [Illustration of layered Kuiper
Belt object.]

If the model is correct, it would support current theories that organic
materials might be common in the universe, researchers said."
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ts-101029.html

On Oct 30, 5:30*am, Yousuf Khan wrote:
SPACE.com -- Icy Red Objects at Solar System's Edge May Point to Life's
Building Blocks
"The reddish hue of many objects in our solar system's frigid outer
reaches may be evidence of complex organic molecules, perhaps even the
building blocks of life, new research suggests.

No ****! Did anyone think they could be anything else?

Andrew Usher

On 02/11/2010 10:34 PM, Andrew Usher wrote:
On Oct 30, 5:30 am, Yousuf wrote:
SPACE.com -- Icy Red Objects at Solar System's Edge May Point to Life's
Building Blocks
"The reddish hue of many objects in our solar system's frigid outer
reaches may be evidence of complex organic molecules, perhaps even the
building blocks of life, new research suggests.

No ****! Did anyone think they could be anything else?

Oxidized iron?

Yousuf Khan

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
| On 02/11/2010 10:34 PM, Andrew Usher wrote:
| On Oct 30, 5:30 am, Yousuf wrote:
| SPACE.com -- Icy Red Objects at Solar System's Edge May Point to Life's
| Building Blocks
| "The reddish hue of many objects in our solar system's frigid outer
| reaches may be evidence of complex organic molecules, perhaps even the
| building blocks of life, new research suggests.
|
| No ****! Did anyone think they could be anything else?
|
| Oxidized iron?
|
| Yousuf Khan
|
Oxidised iron may be, perhaps even be, the building block of cars, ships and
railways, new research suggests.

On Nov 3, 5:30*am, Yousuf Khan wrote:

No ****! Did anyone think they could be anything else?

Oxidized iron?

The spectrum is doubtlessly different, and one wouldn't expect that to
be on the surface of icy objects. I've never seen any paper that
concluded that it was anything other than organics.

The interesting thing, though, is why they're not all the same color.

Andrew Usher

On 03/11/2010 11:00 PM, Andrew Usher wrote:
On Nov 3, 5:30 am, Yousuf wrote:

No ****! Did anyone think they could be anything else?

Oxidized iron?

The spectrum is doubtlessly different, and one wouldn't expect that to
be on the surface of icy objects. I've never seen any paper that
concluded that it was anything other than organics.

The interesting thing, though, is why they're not all the same color.

Andrew Usher

Just to play devil's advocate here, how do we know that all the objects
in Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud are icy? Is it not possible there are rocky
objects out there too, some of which are iron-based? Even with our best
telescopes, most comets are just blurry patches of light.

Yousuf Khan

On Nov 4, 12:37*am, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Just to play devil's advocate here, how do we know that all the objects
in Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud are icy? Is it not possible there are rocky
objects out there too, some of which are iron-based? Even with our best
telescopes, most comets are just blurry patches of light.

Yes. Aside from spectroscopy, there's the fact that temperatures out
there should never have been sufficient to melt metal or rock, so
there should be no differentiation of metal from rock as there is in
the inner solar system.

Andrew Usher