Meteorites and Asteroids - Why Comets and Asteroids Are Great Essay Topics

Meteorites and Asteroids - Why Comets and Asteroids Are Great Essay TopicsOn this essay topic we discuss why, for example, a comet and asteroid are a fine example of what would happen if life were ever discovered. The example we use here is one that can be of some help to you as you write your own essay.We do not know whether there is life in the universe, but we are fairly certain that life could evolve in places with favorable conditions. Life on Earth, in particular, has shown the ability to do this. Where life does exist, however, it will probably be a micro-organism like bacteria, which cannot build a large home on its own and has to rely on organic materials to live on.A comet, by contrast, can provide itself with the raw materials it needs to become a huge structure on its own. Its nucleus is likely not of the same composition as our own sun, but it is not impossible to imagine an asteroid which was composed of such materials. If it was hit by a comet, not only would the nucle us be melted but the rock itself would then become a piece of living material capable of supporting life.The main reason we think this is a fine example of what might happen if life were ever discovered is that the place where the comet's nucleus is found is much more hospitable than Earth. Although many meteorites come from the inner solar system, those which occur near the sun are much less likely to have the 'garden of Eden' origins of our planet. They would be places full of iron and carbon, making them both dense and hot. Not the kind of environment you'd expect to find life - not without the help of life.Life could survive in these conditions for a very long time indeed - assuming, of course, that it was capable of making use of the material it was given. The main things that could sustain life would be inorganic material - and these would be common on comets. If you're trying to learn about whether life exists in the universe, this may be a good opportunity to include the kin d of examples you mentioned earlier - from meteorites to comet cores.If you want to know whether life exists, all you need to do is remember the things we've learned in recent years. When you have a clear idea of the kinds of places in the universe that life could have originated, then you can use these concepts when you're thinking about how you'd describe the origin of life.We know about the environments in which life might exist - so let's take a look at the kinds of organic compounds that life could make in order to make life. These include amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, nucleotides, and carbon compounds. At this point, we're talking about the building blocks of life.Comets are our examples for the kinds of materials life might make - because, although they are much too small to have formed a home in space, the same processes they use in the inner solar system can work in the outer solar system. We cannot say for sure that life did originate on Earth, but the type of informat ion we're beginning to learn about the kinds of places life might arise might help to make the case.