So it seems Philae has found something. Potentially, to quote 2010..."Something wonderful."
[url]http://news.sky.com/story/1514080/alien-life-on-philae-comet-scientists-sayp/url]
Granted, I'd say any such claims are highly dubious and require EXTREME levels of proof, but they bring up some interesting points.
It has a black hydrocarbon crust overlaying ice, smooth icy "seas", and flat-bottomed craters containing "lakes" of re-frozen water overlain with organic debris.
Prof Wickramasinghe said: "What we're saying is that data coming from the comet seems to unequivocally, in my opinion, point to micro-organisms being involved in the formation of the icy structures, the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very dark surface.
"These are not easily explained in terms of pre-biotic chemistry.
"The dark material is being constantly replenished as it is boiled off by heat from the Sun. Something must be doing that at a fairly prolific rate."(emphasis mine)
Whatever it is, it might just be growing. Now there's a host of possibilities for that. The biggest thing will be disproving that there's any sign of earth life; We have plenty of micrometeors and debris from MARS on this planet; it would clearly suggest that over time similar portions of Earth have been spread into and contaminating the rest of the Solar System to some small degree. And like an old milk jug with a little bit left inside growing fungus, perhaps a touch of said extremophile life from earth found it and thought it tasted pretty damn good.
That is, assuming it's not something like a non-organic, thin liquid pocket saturated with carbon dust being the black thing that is being replenished, caused by the probe cracking the surface of the comet and opening up a hole. However, there's also the detection of organic carbon-based molecules around the comet itself, so...
...I think it might be time to send a new probe, if there's any way to get a closer look at the Black Stuff.