ASTRONOMERS are calling for a mission to re-investigate a 30-year-old mystery, hoping to gain a new insight into the origin of life on Earth.
Measurements of sunlight reflected from Mercury’s surface have shown that the majority of minerals on the planet all twist light the same way. Minerals such as quartz can exist in left and right “handed” forms, and these mirror-image versions are usually found in roughly equal quantities.
But Mercury has an over-abundance of left-handers and no one knows why. Some biologists think such minerals could have acted as a template for early life, explaining why Earth’s organic…
