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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Early Life Fed on Organic Haze, Study Suggests


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Saturn's large moon Titan, photographed here by the Huygens space probe, is covered in an orange haze of organic chemicals formed as sunlight reacts with methane high in the moon's atmosphere.

A new study suggests that early Earth had a similar organic haze that provided a ubiquitous source of food for the earliest forms of life.

Image courtesy NASA