Claims extracted
14
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
43%
6 of 14 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
2
Science
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
A century-old theory that comets brought the building blocks of life to Earth may be completely wrong, according to a groundbreaking study.
uncertain
comets → bring → study
Scientists have long believed that comets — giant icy space rocks packed with carbon- and nitrogen-bearing molecules — delivered a steady rain of prebiotics needed to seed life on Earth.
asserted
comets → believe → Earth
But researchers at the University of Cambridge found that the chances of those life-building prebiotic molecules surviving a comet’s high-speed impact with Earth are actually slim, according to the study published in Scientific Reports last week.
uncertain
molecules → find → Reports
“Historically, scientists thought that comets were important for the origin of life on Earth, because they carried carbon- and nitrogen-bearing molecules, so these giant space snowballs were almost like a ‘get out of jail free card’ that brought all the molecules a planet would need to seed life,” lead author Dr Richard Anslow from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy said in a statement.
asserted
Anslow → think → statement
“It’s kind of a romantic idea, but our results suggest it’s highly unlikely,” Anslow said.
asserted
Anslow → ’ → ?
Comets typically travel too fast and strike at too sharp an angle, causing the molecules to vaporize, researchers said.
But even if some building blocks survived in a “one-off fluke,” there may not be a concentration high enough to create life.
uncertain
blocks → travel → life
“It would really have to be a one-in-a-million occurrence, because not only would you need an impact at just the right speed and just the right angle, you would also need everything to happen after that point, in terms of the concentration and the speed at which the chemical origins of life got going,” said Anslow.
asserted
Anslow → have → life
“We can’t rule out for certain that it happened that way.
asserted
it → rule → ?
But it seems to be a really rare occurrence – at best, a one-off fluke.”
asserted
it → seem → ?
Researchers said the molecular seeds of life could have come from several other places, such as asteroids, which hit Earth far more frequently.
uncertain
which → say → Earth
Although cometary delivery of life-building molecules on Earth seems unlikely, scientists found that our neighbors in the solar system may be more habitable.
uncertain
neighbors → build → system
Comets would be more likely to make it on the surface of Mars, which is smaller than Earth and has a thinner atmosphere, especially during the period of the solar system’s development when the space rocks were more common.
asserted
rocks → make → development
“This is not to say it definitely happened on Mars, of course, but suggests it would be unlikely if it happened on Earth and didn’t happen on Mars,” Anslow said.
uncertain
Anslow → say → Mars
“Or the other, perhaps more likely, alternative is that it didn’t happen on either planet.”
asserted
it → happen → planet
The Aporia
