NASA's SOFIA Observatory telescope discovered the substance of an icy comet that flew past Earth in 2016.
NASA says comets could delivercarbon to planets during the early formation of our solar system. "We're still not sure whether Earth could have captured enough carbon on its own during its formation, so carbon-rich comets could have been an important source of this element that led to life as we know it," the scientists said.
Researchers were studying Comet Catalina, which originates in the distant Oort Cloud. Such comets in the past could collide with the Earth and leave their matter on it.
Now scientists need to study more comets to confirm their hypothesis.