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Meteorite may have seeded life on Earth � Everyday Science
Life on Earth probably originated elsewhere. Life may have started in space and come to Earth on comets.
The new research suggests that the meteorites, which carry with them records of chemistry in theearly solar system, may have seeded Earth with the molecular precursors of life.
a group of U.S. researchers has found evidence of emission of extraterrestrial nitrogen by a primitive meteorite.
Nitrogen is a chemical element essential for life, found in all terrestrial organisms.
Studies with the Murchison meteorite, which reached Australia in 1969 showed that the rock is also rich in organic compounds
The origin of life on Earth is a very deep mystery and many scientists are convinced we need to look outside our own planet for an explanation.
One obvious objection to any form of exogenesis is that we have simply transferred the problem elsewhere — we have still not answered the question of how, when or where life began.
‘life’ may be as ubiquitous as hydrogen and helium, and that at night we are peering into a cosmos that is, quite literally, hopping with life and life, moreover, as we know it.
Until recently a big argument against this idea was the belief that life forms could not possibly survive the rigours of deep space.
It is now known, however, that some bacteria, viruses and even primitive animals such as the tiny insect-like eight-legged tardigrade — an earthly creature which scientists have taken into space — can easily survive, perhaps for millions of years, in the radiation-bathed vacuum of space.
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