Jubilant after the success of its OSIRIS-REx robotic spacecraft  mission to the asteroid Bennu, NASA scientists congratulated themselves on discovering the source of life on Earth.

“The sample gathered from Bennu contained the organic compounds required for life to develop,” Dr. Reilly Ceres said. “Now we know that life was brought here from space.”

After billions spent on research and space missions, the NASA Bennu team has achieved its goal. However, there was less than a party atmosphere in mission control.

“It’s over,” Ceres said, holding back tears. “We’ve been completely focussed on finding out where life came from that we did not think about it being the end of the road for us. The funding gravy train is over.”

At that point, the already morose gathering took on the feel of a funeral, until our meridian-street reporter asked a question.

“So, if you found the building blocks of life on a random asteroid, where did the asteroid get the organic material?”

Ceres looked puzzled for a long moment before answering.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Ceres said, his body now coursing with energy.

“Quick. Rehire the grant writers,” Ceres said. “Grease the funding skids. Those organic molecules had to come from somewhere and that’s where life started.”

And the search was on again. And so was their funding.

At publishing time some of the OSIRIS-REx 2 team were quietly considering the possibility that it’s turtles all the way down. (IYKYK)