NITROGEN in Earth’s atmosphere was carried here by comets, say scientists
who’ve been studying Jupiter’s atmosphere. This supports the idea that other
ingredients of life arrived in the same way, in a kind of cosmic starter
pack.
Researchers can trace the source of nitrogen by comparing the ratio of
different isotopes. In our atmosphere, there are about 3 nitrogen-15 atoms for
every 1000 nitrogen-14 atoms. But finding out the ratio elsewhere in the
Universe is tricky, because light from distant nitrogen molecules is not greatly
affected by their atomic mass.
So a team of researchers led by Tobias Owen of…
