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An intriguing new experience may have finally resolved the beginning of life on Earth, as scientists found "convincing new evidence" that the ingredients of life could come directly from a comet.
To find out if this was possible, the scientists recreated their own laboratory comets and built interstellar ice grains covered with water and carbon dioxide so that they could learn if the building blocks for the life as we know them Daily mail report.
To do this, an international team of scientists from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and also in Taiwan and France conducted their work in an ultra-vacuum chamber of -450 degrees Fahrenheit to create the grains of ice present in comets.
The researchers were able to imitate the effects of cosmic rays in space by using high energy electrons on ice grains and exposing them to ionizing radiation. After that, the researchers discovered that many phosphorous oxoacids were formed. And although on Earth, they can be considered as deadly for everything that lives, in space, it is quite different, according to lead author Andrew Turner of the University of Pikeville.
"On Earth, phosphine is deadly to living things. But in the interstellar medium, an exotic phosphine chemistry can favor rare chemical reaction pathways to initiate the formation of bi-elevating molecules such as oxoacids of phosphorus, which could eventually trigger the molecular evolution of life as we know it. .
New theory: The extraterrestrial origins of vital bio-plans for dinosaurs. And cats and humans. And everything else https://t.co/K9D30VTX7p pic.twitter.com/KmluI0iQng
– Brian Hurley (@brianhurley) September 28, 2018
The scientists took these phosphorus compounds and then fused them with the biomolecules that exist inside the cells of all living things on Earth, noting that biosulfates and diphosphoric acid are necessary components for the life according to molecular biology. These work together with the phospholipids found in cell membranes and adenosine triphosphate, able to create substances that replicate automatically.
As Ralf Kaiser, Professor of Chemistry at UH Manoa, explained, "the phosphorus oxoacids detected in our experiments by a combination of sophisticated analyzes involving lasers, coupled with mass spectrometers and gas chromatographs. Gerasimenko, which contains a source of phosphorus supposed to derive from phosphine. Upon delivery to Earth by meteorites or comets, these phosphorus oxoacids may be available for the prebiotic phosphorus chemistry of the Earth. "
It is not only life on Earth that has been created as a result of comets, but also life in other parts of the universe.
"It is therefore essential to understand the easy synthesis of these oxoacids to unravel the origin of water-soluble prebiotic phosphorus compounds and how they might have been incorporated into organisms not only on Earth, but also in our universe. "
The new study that suggests that life on Earth might have been triggered by ingredients in a comet was published in Nature Communications.
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