One key ingredient for life thought to be delivered to Earth by meteorites may have been homemade after all.
The phosphorus that went into building the first DNA and RNA molecules is thought to have come from a mineral called schreibersite.
That means “emergence of life is not necessarily connected to meteorite impacts,” says Sandra Piazolo, a geologist at the University of Leeds in England. A weather-fueled source for phosphorus could broaden the window of opportunity for life as we know it to arise on Earthlike planets throughout the universe.Using those observations, along with estimates of weather conditions on early Earth, Piazolo’s team calculated the amount of schreibersite that lightning strikes could have created billions of years ago. The team even accounted for factors such as early Earth’s carbon dioxide–rich atmosphere, which could have fueled more thunderstorms.
From about 4.5 billion to 3.5 billion years ago, lightning could have forged 110 to 11,000 kilograms of phosphorus-containing compounds each year to help seed life, the researchers conclude.
Whether lightning strikes or meteorites were the main source of phosphorus for Earth’s first life-forms depends on when life arose, says Matthew Pasek, a geochemist at the University of South Florida in Tampa not involved in the work.
The phosphorus that went into building the first DNA and RNA molecules is thought to have come from a mineral called schreibersite.
That means “emergence of life is not necessarily connected to meteorite impacts,” says Sandra Piazolo, a geologist at the University of Leeds in England. A weather-fueled source for phosphorus could broaden the window of opportunity for life as we know it to arise on Earthlike planets throughout the universe.Using those observations, along with estimates of weather conditions on early Earth, Piazolo’s team calculated the amount of schreibersite that lightning strikes could have created billions of years ago. The team even accounted for factors such as early Earth’s carbon dioxide–rich atmosphere, which could have fueled more thunderstorms.
From about 4.5 billion to 3.5 billion years ago, lightning could have forged 110 to 11,000 kilograms of phosphorus-containing compounds each year to help seed life, the researchers conclude.
Whether lightning strikes or meteorites were the main source of phosphorus for Earth’s first life-forms depends on when life arose, says Matthew Pasek, a geochemist at the University of South Florida in Tampa not involved in the work.
