Comet carries a building block of life

Life on earth came, if not from ancient astronauts, in part from outer space.

NASA astronauts scientists have discovered an amino acid, glycine, essential for life on earth, on a comet, confirming a long-held theory that the building blocks for life came from outer space, Info Week reports.

"Our discovery supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts," said James Elsila, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

That's exciting because it suggests other comets and extraterrestrial bodies are flinging the essential amino acids around the galaxy, raising the possibility that life may well have developed elsewhere.

"The discovery of glycine in a comet supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space, and strengthens the argument that life in the universe may be common rather than rare," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute.