Philae has detected organic molecules on comet

Philae has detected organic molecules on comet
(Image credit: Handout/Getty Images)

Organic molecules are essential for life, and the Philae spacecraft has found some on the surface of the comet it landed on last week.

Comet 67P is more than 500 million miles from Earth. A German-built instrument "sniffed" the atmosphere of the comet and picked up the compounds, the BBC reports. After Philae landed, a hammer struck the comet, and preliminary results sent back suggest there is a layer of dust on the surface with hard water-ice underneath.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.