Life on Earth was started by a meteorite, new evidence suggests

Knight

Knight

Well-known Member
There are few questions bigger than how life on Earth began, and a new study may have finally proven that our existence can be traced back to a meteorite landing on our planet billions of years ago.

Experts have long debated how Earth, just one of trillions of planets created in the universe’s 14-billion-year existence, managed to cultivate life.

A leading theory has claimed that the core materials that make up DNA were transported to Earth from space via a meteorite around 3.5 billion years ago when our planet was a fiery hellscape in its celestial infancy.

During this time it was constantly peppered by meteorites and comets due to a chaotic and formative solar system, and it is possible at least one impact brought with it the constituent parts of DNA.

But while this theory had much support, it has had one glaring weakness; until now, only two of the four main components of DNA had been found in space rocks.

However, fresh analysis of three meteorites using state-of-the-art methods has spotted evidence of all four, proving that the necessary jigsaw pieces for life are indeed found in space.

Scientists say it is possible that these basic ingredients could have been deposited on Earth by a meteorite before life began.

“[The DNA chemicals] could have been generated by photochemical reactions prevailing in the interstellar medium and later incorporated into asteroids during solar system formation,” the researchers write in their study, published in the journal Nature

https://www.yahoo.com/news/life-earth-started-meteorite-evidence-144752774.html
 

JonSR77 said:
It is an interesting theory. To me, it is pretty amazing that complex organic molecules can exist in a space rock...at all.
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My "grand" works with the space rocks at NASA and its amazing what her experiments with them have uncovered! She is an expert with DNA testing. Those space rocks are fascinating to her and I love to listen to her talk about her work testing them with different experiments. It is so nice to have a "mad scientist" in the family that loves her work. To look at her you would be surprised to learn that that blonde headed little girl is brilliant and gets so involved with her studies! Her professors are amazed that she was home schooled the last 2 years of high school and that college was completed quickly with majors in chemistry and biology. No dumb blonde in this family! She is on to work on her PHD now.
 

Well, not to put a damper on the excitement, but - -

The entire planet was assembled by materials from space, and there are all sorts of organic substances in space, so it is no big surprise that adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine have all been found in a meteorite.

This does not mean that life or DNA came from space. It just confirms what has been suspected for a long time.
 
raybar said:
Well, not to put a damper on the excitement, but - -

The entire planet was assembled by materials from space, and there are all sorts of organic substances in space, so it is no big surprise that adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine have all been found in a meteorite.

This does not mean that life or DNA came from space. It just confirms what has been suspected for a long time.
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Well, there you go. Being reasonable.
 
Is there some possibility that life might have hitched a ride on a meteor? There is a possibility, but there is much more evidence that life is home grown. And even if life came from some place other than earth, it just kicks the can down the road- where and how did that alien life come from? And you're stuck with the same problem as to how life started.
 
Life in general coming from meteorites or the planet itself but humans or more 'advanced' forms of life not so sure.
 
Dominant astrobiology theory over decades has been that life formed in sun warmed pools of organic goo termed abiogenesis. That meteorite version per news is similar termed pseudo-panspermia.

For the last couple decades, I have leaned more to long laughed at panspermia theory that is rapidly gaining advocates. Its most compelling argument is how life amazingly formed in the oceans almost immediately after the oceans cooled enough for liquid water 3.5 billion years ago. Second argument is that science has since discovered microorganisms that live in extreme conditions and the bizarre tardigrades that can exist in vacuum space. That points to actual organism DNA arriving intact via comets with micro particulates like DNA chaffed off early in the upper levels, slowly floating down safely through the atmosphere thus not burning up in the impact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

Another life theory I will make herein is directed panspermia where actual extraterrestrial intelligent entities may seed DNA organic life throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and or universe. Earth life has too many remarkable "lucky coincidences" like our incredible Moon. Consider how amazing is that just now after 4 billion years the slowly receding Moon is at the perfect distance between the Sun and Earth to allow solar eclipses. That is also at the core of my hypothesis that Ultimate Intelligent Entities, aka UIEs, may have had a hand on life on Earth that can be gleaned as possible from scripture in the Bible and also a role in how the Earth got it's very unlikely moon.

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/how-important-is-the-moon-for-life-on-earth.html
 
David777 said:
Dominant astrobiology theory over decades has been that life formed in sun warmed pools of organic goo termed abiogenesis. That meteorite version per news is similar termed pseudo-panspermia.

For the last couple decades, I have leaned more to long laughed at panspermia theory that is rapidly gaining advocates. Its most compelling argument is how life amazingly formed in the oceans almost immediately after the oceans cooled enough for liquid water 3.5 billion years ago. Second argument is that science has since discovered microorganisms that live in extreme conditions and the bizarre tardigrades that can exist in vacuum space. That points to actual organism DNA arriving intact via comets with micro particulates like DNA chaffed off early in the upper levels, slowly floating down safely through the atmosphere thus not burning up in the impact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

Another life theory I will make herein is directed panspermia where actual extraterrestrial intelligent entities may seed DNA organic life throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and or universe. Earth life has too many remarkable "lucky coincidences" like our incredible Moon. Consider how amazing is that just now after 4 billion years the slowly receding Moon is at the perfect distance between the Sun and Earth to allow solar eclipses. That is also at the core of my hypothesis that Ultimate Intelligent Entities, aka UIEs, may have had a hand on life on Earth that can be gleaned as possible from scripture in the Bible and also a role in how the Earth got it's very unlikely moon.

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/how-important-is-the-moon-for-life-on-earth.html
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This is very interesting. When I try to read about the galaxy it usually goes right over my head. Is there a simple beginners book that you could recommend?
 
StillLearning said:
This is very interesting. When I try to read about the galaxy it usually goes right over my head. Is there a simple beginners book that you could recommend?
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Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe
by Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee
Amazon used paperbacks just a few bucks.
 
David777 said:
Dominant astrobiology theory over decades has been that life formed in sun warmed pools of organic goo termed abiogenesis. That meteorite version per news is similar termed pseudo-panspermia.

For the last couple decades, I have leaned more to long laughed at panspermia theory that is rapidly gaining advocates. Its most compelling argument is how life amazingly formed in the oceans almost immediately after the oceans cooled enough for liquid water 3.5 billion years ago. Second argument is that science has since discovered microorganisms that live in extreme conditions and the bizarre tardigrades that can exist in vacuum space. That points to actual organism DNA arriving intact via comets with micro particulates like DNA chaffed off early in the upper levels, slowly floating down safely through the atmosphere thus not burning up in the impact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

Another life theory I will make herein is directed panspermia where actual extraterrestrial intelligent entities may seed DNA organic life throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and or universe. Earth life has too many remarkable "lucky coincidences" like our incredible Moon. Consider how amazing is that just now after 4 billion years the slowly receding Moon is at the perfect distance between the Sun and Earth to allow solar eclipses. That is also at the core of my hypothesis that Ultimate Intelligent Entities, aka UIEs, may have had a hand on life on Earth that can be gleaned as possible from scripture in the Bible and also a role in how the Earth got it's very unlikely moon.

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/how-important-is-the-moon-for-life-on-earth.html
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"extraterrestrial intelligent entities may seed DNA organic life throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and or universe. "

What are they Klingons!? :)
 
raybar said:
Well, not to put a damper on the excitement, but - -

The entire planet was assembled by materials from space, and there are all sorts of organic substances in space, so it is no big surprise that adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine have all been found in a meteorite.

This does not mean that life or DNA came from space. It just confirms what has been suspected for a long time.
Click to expand...
Excellent I could not have said it better myself! :)(y)
 
I suppose a meteorite could be space dust


Genesis 2:7 teaches, “The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” With the rest of creation, God had simply spoken things into existence (e.g., Genesis 1:3, 14, 20, 24), but God does things differently with man.
https://www.gotquestions.org/dust-of-the-earth.html
 
Chet said:
What's really amazing is that from some primordial soup eventually came us.
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Well yes us and thousands and thousands of other species of life, past, present and future. We are just one among many. But is our species the only one that can comprehend that? My best guess is no, it is not.
 
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