With the help of the Philae lander that was deployed by the Rosetta spacecraft last November, the lander has detected 16 carbon compounds that are rich in nitrogen and considered to be organic that was never before observed on comets, according to ESA scientists. They could have formed in the early solar system and then incorporated into the comet.

Researchers published the findings derived after analyzing the Philae data in an article published Thursday in the journal Science. Samples for both experiments were successfully collected. Samples of gas and dust kicked up during the landing entered tubes at the bottom of the lander.

These organic compounds were first determined during the scientific investigation of Philae that lasted 60 hours after it landed on the surface of the comet.

“The existence of such complex molecules in a comet, a relic of the early Solar System, imply that chemical processes at work during that time could have played a key role in fostering the formation of prebiotic material”, the ESA report stated.

Writing for academic news site The Conversation, UK comet expert Professor Monica Grady gave her view on the discovery.

“What we may be looking at here is our abiologicial ancestral material – this is stuff that went into the mix to produce life”, said Professor Ian Wright of the Open University and Ptolemy team.

“One of the declared goals of the Rosetta mission when it was approved in 1993 was to determine the composition of volatile compounds in the cometary nucleus”.

Sixteen compounds have been found and identified in total. Several amino acids were also found. Amino acids are what make up proteins, which are very important for life. “The challenge now is to discover where else it might have taken root”.

The detection of organic molecules was only part of the data found by Philae. MUPUS also measured a variation in temperature between -180°C and -145°C as the comet rotated in its 12.4 hour daily cycle.

Philae lander used two separate instruments to get details of molecules during its landing on the comet.

Nothing has been heard from the lander since July 9, following occasional, intermittent contact after it “phoned home” on June 13, ending seven months of silence.

“Either way, it seems that comets are pretty good places to find the building blocks of molecules which later on could be used for life”.