Meteorite impacts may have helped spawn life on Earth
Nature Geoscience
2008년12월8일
Impacts in the early oceans from the most common type of meteorites may have generated some of the complex organic molecules necessary for life, reports a study online in Nature Geoscience.
Although many of the starting elements of life were present on early Earth, it is unclear how they became organized into the building blocks of life. Yoshihiro Furukawa and colleagues used a propellant gun to simulate the impact of an iron and carbon-bearing meteorite, into a mixture of water and ammonia to mimic the chemistry of Earth’s early oceans. After the high-velocity impact, the team recovered a mixture of organic molecules, including a simple amino acid.
The group concludes that meteorite impact events, which were frequent on early Earth, may have contributed to the creation of complex organic molecules that formed the basis for life.
doi: 10.1038/ngeo383
리서치 하이라이트
-
3월4일
Environment: Reservoirs account for more than half of water storage variabilityNature
-
3월2일
Evolution: Neanderthals may have heard just like usNature Ecology & Evolution
-
3월2일
Geoscience: Earth’s atmosphere may return to low-levels of oxygen in one billion yearsNature Geoscience
-
2월26일
Environment: Shifting from small to medium plastic bottles could reduce PET wasteScientific Reports
-
2월24일
Environment: European forests more vulnerable to multiple threats as climate warmsNature Communications
-
2월11일
Environment: Global CFC-11 emissions in declineNature
