Things going bang in the night

On a clear night, some of us might be disposed towards looking to the sky to ask does life exist out there.

Apparently it does, if scientists looking at the Murchison meteorite are anything to go by in this era of scientific denial. The meteorite burst into the night sky and broke up over the township of Murchison. With some 80kg of the remnants having been collected and distributed to researchers around the world, spectrophotometric analysis has revealed it to contain large quantities of amino acids, one of the building blocks of life.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Murchison meteorite landing and the township of Murchison is having a ball, so to speak. The Murchison Historical Society is holding a number of events next weekend from September 27 to 29 that they hope will put the small town on the map.

Famous scientists from NASA and Chicago along with scientists from Australia are flying in and are going to talk about the meteorite and the significance of the material it contains. Aside from the talks, there will be films about the landing and parts of the original meteorite will be on display.
For more information on the events that are being planned, head over to their website at www.murchisonmeteorite.com.au.

Everything being planned is more about the rock than the little green men that might have accompanied it.