I think Rachel Maddow is rubbing off a bit on me. I think this is the type of story that she really gets excited about. For me as a gay man, interested in equality, the importance of this story is more than simply geekiness however. The greatest force that fuels homophobia and anti-gay sentiments, is an irrational refusal to accept Science and let go of religious junk that stands in the way of true Faith for the real religious. The Bible is used as a weapon, and it is a pretty powerful weapon at that. but the more we understand the origins of all that we know, the less power it will yield as a weapon, and religion can return to being a useful practice in individuals’ lives.

The larger object is 85% carbon -the essential ingredient for the organic chemistry needed for life, and the smaller one is 48% carbon. Both contain higher-than-expected amounts of deuterium, a rare form of hydrogen, in a concentration 30 times higher than is usually found mixed with hydrogen on Earth -all elements common in interstellar clouds of dust in deep space, far more ancient than the sun. When the team used a microscope to examine the dust particles they also found tiny crystals which could only have been “condensed or processed at close distances from the young sun.”

Ancient Organic Particles from Space Discovered in Antarctica.