Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and Cometary Biology

Abstract

The long-awaited rendezvous of ROSETTA with its target Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is expected at best to give indirect evidence for cometary panspermia and the presence of microorganisms in comets. Prodigious out gasing of water vapour observed at large heliocentric distances, low albedo and a terrain of alternating rough and smooth areas already provides consistency with cometary biology,