© via REUTERS/Mark Garlick
It is now a common theory that Meteorites brought the building blocks of life to earth. Now researchers have confirmed this with a new study.
“One of the most fundamental questions about the origin of life is where the materials needed for its creation come from,” says the study leader Rayssa Martins from the Department of Geosciences at the University of Cambridge.
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This is how volatile elements came to earth
They investigated for this Zink from different meteorites to draw conclusions volatile elements to pull. These are compounds that evaporate at low temperatures. They contain chemicals important for life such as Nitrogen, carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen, methane, sulfur and Water.
They were about so-called Planetesimale brought to earth. These are smaller boulders that formed in the early solar system and from which planets, including Earth, later emerged. In addition to zinc, they also contained the volatile elements.
However, the researchers found that planetesimals in the early solar system were due to strong radiation melted. In doing so, they lost the volatile elements. Only later in the formation of the solar system were they exposed to lower levels of radiation and retained it.
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Zinc provides answers
To do this, the researchers examined zinc from a large number of meteorites. These meteorites come from different planetesimals. It turned out that molten planetesimals 70 percent of the total mass of the Earth, but only 10 percent of the zinc content.
The rest 90 percent must therefore come from planetesimals not melted were. This means that the volatile elements had not yet evaporated and reached the earth.
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Search for habitable planets
The new research also shows that it is not enough for one planet to be in the habitablen Zone orbits its star and can therefore theoretically have liquid water. There must also be sufficient materials available there in order to form life.
“If we can understand how these materials formed on Earth, it could give us clues about how life originated here and how it might evolve elsewhere,” explains Martins. You have to search for it habitable planet keep an eye on these volatile elements. The results of the study were published in the journal Science Advances.
