Comet-ary: Rosetta and the Rubber Ducky

Comet 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, now renamed the Rubber Ducky because, well, it looks kind of like that, is one of perhaps a trillion comets waiting to circle our sun and perhaps fade away, evaporating or becoming just another piece of rock sitting around in space waiting to collide with planets as asteroids. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), “The Kuiper belt, out beyond Pluto, is a flared disc of comets that supplies most of the short-period comets (those that orbit the Sun in less than a century).” Whereas, “The Oort cloud (named after Jan H. Oort) is much larger and supplies the long-period comets. It encloses the Solar System, with an outer edge that reaches almost a quarter of the way to the nearest star.”A little more than 10 years ago the ESA launched a mission, Rosetta, to the Rubber Ducky. Oh, it was a long shot, a very long shot — 2.8 million miles away and 10 years to get there. And a month ago they arrived and secured Rosetta in a stable orbit around Rubber Ducky, at a distance of 100 miles. Since then they have been inching closer and closer, getting better and better images. What they are finding is going to change science, planetary science and most of the sciences of life as we know it. And what’s more, between now and November, Rosetta is going to release a little landing craft called Philae to settle on Rubber Ducky and conduct experiments.And all that data and imagery are transmitted back to Earth. Just to give you an idea of how far away this is, the transmission has a travel time, a delay, of 20 minutes.You see, ever since it was suspected that comets carried water and could therefore contain the building blocks of life as we know it, we’ve been trying to see exactly what was up there. A few years back the Japanese sent a satellite chasing a comet and managed to pass through the comet’s “tail” as it heated up coming closer to the sun. They collected particles and brought them back to Earth. An amazing feat. Contents? Largely kept secret, they were to confirm the presence of a few “right-handed” amino acids and water. It seems life, as we know it, is a matter of balance; left and right handed amino acids are critical, producing the “soup” from which life can emerge.On Mars, our polar probe relayed that it too had found amino acids. That report, thought to be fundamental to understanding the possibility of life on another planet in our own solar system, was first sent to President Bush’s desk. And only his desk. So far it is publically unknown which amino acids were found there.Now, if Philae can safely leave Rosetta and then descend and land safely on Rubber Ducky, she can start sending data on a full inventory of organic and other chemicals in the comet. What is she looking for? If Philae and Rosetta send confirmation they’ve found the so-called elusive “left-handed” amino acids — these are the building blocks, what the ESA calls the “bricks” with which our house of life was built whereas the “right-handed” amino acids are the mortar — well, the whole history of life on Earth can be rewritten. In addition, astrobiologists believe that if Rosetta finds “right-handed” amino acids as well, then that would mean Rubber Ducky will be carrying all the blocks necessary for life to begin, the complete package; life to begin once it finds a suitable home.It is worth noting that in our brief 3,000 year history of recording such things, perhaps eight comet tails have passed over Earth. Each has added to the water volume of our oceans, thereby depositing their “bricks” here. Makes one think, doesn’t it? How about 12,000 or more comets since the Earth was formed? That’s quite a few deposits that were made by Rubber Ducky’s relatives.Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.