The origin of life on Earth: scientists put forward a new theory
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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An international group of Spanish and Italian space researchers voiced their theory of the origin of life on planet Earth. In their opinion, life appeared in due time, thanks to meteorites.
Scientists have experimentally determined that one of the varieties of meteorites - namely, carbonaceous chondrites - is capable of producing organic compounds.
"This kind of meteorites has never been found before on our planet, or on the surface of other cosmic objects and bodies," explained the authors of the experiment. Such meteorites absorb a certain amount of water, and new molecular structures begin to form in their interior space.
On the positive results of their research, scientists reported on the pages of the periodic journal Scientific Reports.
In the course of the scientific experiment, it was found that the bodies of meteorites have unique substances in their composition that have the ability to elementarily combine hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and certain metals. They can be used as unique catalysts for the reactions of forming the main components that make up proteins and RNA. For this reason, scientists concluded: it was meteorites - carbonaceous chondrites - who took the main part in building chemical links - the founders of earthly life.
Hondritic stone meteorites have much in common with gas-dust complexes, which created the solar system.
The experts conducted a new study in the conditions of an equipped laboratory. Similar warmed elements plunged into an arbitrary volume of sterile liquid. After some time, scientists discovered the formation of complex organic bonds. Based on this, there was a corresponding assumption - the theory of the emergence of life, and not only on our planet, but also in the universe in general.
Specialists have noticed that among the rocks available on the surface of the Earth, there are none that have such catalytic properties.
Hondritic meteorites are considered to be the first solid bodies in the solar system. Their formation originates from a dust subdisk (cloud), that is, even before the time when the planet Earth and other planets appeared.
The question of the appearance of life on Earth is considered one of the most difficult and interesting questions of the modern science of natural science. And to this question there is still no clear and precise answer. It is known that already 3.5 billion years ago the stage of chemical evolution ended with the emergence of the first living cellular structures - it is from here that the biological revolution begins. The study of the phenomena of the origin of life is occupied by researchers of a very wide range of specialties: astronomers, professors of aerodynamics, molecular physicists, radiophysicists, geologists, etc. The estimation of meteors and meteorites provides valuable information on the substances of outer space, and, perhaps very soon, we will witness the most important scientific discoveries.