Tag: chemical

Building Blocks of Everything, Everywhere

ryanLeave a comment
One of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time came with the invention of the spectroscope by Joseph Von Fraunhofer in 1814.  It enabled us to look out at the universe and realize that the same basic building blocks that made you and I and all other life, were the same things that make up everything else in the cosmos.  The tiny atoms in our bodies all started out at the center of a massive star billions of years ago.  So naturally, when we talk about the odds of life forming elsewhere, we have to include a study of where...

Materials to Build Earth are Everywhere

ryanLeave a comment
Astronomers save up some of their best science for conferences.  When all of their friends and colleagues get together it can be a big opportunity to show off and impress the titans of the field. This is why big astronomy meetings generate a lot of science news.  This is the third or fourth story I’ve posted about the proceedings at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National meeting this week, and the good science just keeps coming in.  Although I had strong opinions about a declaration of potential life on Comet 67P earlier this week, a story from the same meeting, I...