New analyzes of samples from the asteroid ryugu reinforce the hypothesis that life on Earth has received a decisive boost from space. The organic molecules of Ryugu, a carbon-rich celestial body, may have contributed to the reactions that led to the emergence of the first organisms some 4 billion years ago.
The research, published by the journal of the German Physical Society, diminishing that some of the compounds found on the asteroid were already in the gas cloud in which our solar system will end. At that time, the asteroid reached 40 degrees and liquid water eventually formed on its surface, an arena for chemical reactions to begin generating ever more complex molecules.
Despite its eventual refreezing, and its exposure to cosmic and solar radiation, those primitive molecules survived for billions of years. That makes astronomers think that asteroids like ryugu it could have enriched that young Earth with its own organic substances.
10 years after the Chelyabinsk disaster, the threat of “invisible meteorites” is still present
The most accepted idea is that this process happened after the first organic molecules They will react with the water inside the planets, in order to develop others that, in a prolonged interaction with the environment and the terrestrial geology, gave way to unicellular organisms and then multicellular ones.
the remains of ryugu arrived on Earth on December 8, 2020, as part of the Japanese Hayabusa 2 mission. It was a milestone, as it made available to scientists sterile samples taken directly from the surface of an asteroid in space, unlike those recovered from meteorites, which are asteroids exposed to the environment and to human manipulation after impacting our planet. Everything indicates that, to unravel new keys to life on Earth, we will have to keep looking at the sky.
MVB JL
You may also like
