"I will assume that the experts involved have not taken any reasonable precautions, and learned nothing from the past 60 years of acquired experience in space exploration. I will then ask other non-experts in the field if the experts are minimally competent or not."
There are papers covering contamination prevention and detection for every stage of the mission. There are papers with the designs and intentions before launch and papers with how well it went and their specific findings after return.
Most organic molecules are different from it's mirrored version, and living thing usually produce only one version. But inorganic reactions produce an even mix of 50% and 50%. So in most cases it's easy to spot.
Also, some sugars or amino acids are very common here and others very rare, and the commet probably has another mix.
Also, the ammount of isotopes of the atoms (like Carbon 14) is probably different.
Aren't we starting to figure out that life (self-organization) is the most likely outcome for planets with our conditions? Maybe "our conditions" are also too strong of a requirement
Check out Blaise Arcas on MLST and Nick Land on Dwarkesh. Self organization might just be the second law of thermodynamics in action
"“All five nucleobases used to construct both DNA and RNA, along with phosphates, have already been found in the Bennu samples brought to Earth by OSIRIS-REx,” said Furukawa. “The new discovery of ribose means that all of the components to form the molecule RNA are present in Bennu.”"
sugars,gum, and stardust? so like, somehow,teenage girls have been getting off the planet and hanging around in space and leaving a mess behind, bet it has that wierd artificial cotton candy smell
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[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 37.7 ms ] threadI’m going to be sad if it turns out someone sneezed into it and was afraid to tell their manager.
Here is one sick paper covering some of the clean rooms https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20230005897
Also, some sugars or amino acids are very common here and others very rare, and the commet probably has another mix.
Also, the ammount of isotopes of the atoms (like Carbon 14) is probably different.
> … consists of polymer-like materials extremely rich in nitrogen and oxygen.
Check out Blaise Arcas on MLST and Nick Land on Dwarkesh. Self organization might just be the second law of thermodynamics in action
"“All five nucleobases used to construct both DNA and RNA, along with phosphates, have already been found in the Bennu samples brought to Earth by OSIRIS-REx,” said Furukawa. “The new discovery of ribose means that all of the components to form the molecule RNA are present in Bennu.”"
Let's hope it is not a contamination.