Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years.

They include the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes.

Scientists have long debated the important possibility that water and organic molecules were brought by asteroids and comets to the young Earth after it cooled following its formation, providing some of the key building blocks for the emergence of life.

Shrunk wrote:Why does this mean that these compounds were brought to earth? Couldn't it simply demonstrate that such compounds can arise spontaneously under conditions that might have existed on pre-biotic earth?

B.B.C. Article
Rosetta comet probe given termination date
The Rosetta probe will be crash-landed on Comet 67P on Friday 30 September, the European Space Agency has confirmed.
The manoeuvre, which is expected to destroy the satellite, will bring to an end two years of investigations at the 4km-wide icy dirt-ball.
Flight controllers plan to have the cameras taking and relaying pictures during the final descent.
Sensors that "sniff" the chemical environment will also be switched on.
All other instruments will likely be off.
Flight dynamics experts have still to work out the fine details, but Rosetta will be put into a tight ellipse around the comet and commanded to drop its periapsis (lowest pass) progressively. A final burn will then put the satellite on a collision course with the duck-shaped object.
Mission managers have previously talked about bringing Rosetta down in a place dubbed "Agilkia" - the location originally chosen to land its surface robot, Philae, in November 2014.

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SCIENCE ‘TIL THE VERY END

Rosetta will collect science data until the very end of its descent on Friday. The opportunity to study a comet at such close proximity makes the descent phase one of the most exciting of the entire mission.

A summary of the goals of the instruments that are operating during the descent are provided below:

We love that @ESA_Rosetta is taking pictures of a pit ... we love pits!