Comet Tempel 1, the target of NASA's Deep Impact probe, turns out to be quite fragile, with no more substance than a snowbank.
Kate has posted the latest NASA article on our Scienceagogo's front page.
The comet's dust and ice grains form a fluffy structure of fine particles held together loosely by a weak gravitational pull, the researchers said
An analysis of material in the plume showed a huge increase in the amount of molecules that contain carbon. This suggests that comets like Tempel 1 contain a substantial amount of organic material, which means they might have brought life to Earth early in the planet's history at a time when asteroid and meteor strikes were common.
The research on Tempel 1 will be published this Thursday in the journal Science.
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The above para was taken from:-
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArti..._SCIENCE-SPACE-
