A special type of radioactive meteorite could have seeded life on Earth, a new study found.
Carbonaceous chondrites, a type of radioactive meteorite chock full of water and organic compounds, produce energetic gamma rays that can drive the chemical reactions to synthesize amino acids — the building blocks of life — researchers discovered.
Meteorites are leftovers from the formation of the young solar system’s rocky inner planets, which first clotted from the hot clouds of gas and dust billowing near the sun roughly 4.6 billion years ago. At the time, the planets were too close to the sun to form oceans and so couldn’t harbor life, leaving scientists puzzling over how Earth transformed into an oasis of life from its initial barren state. A previous study suggested that water could have been brought to Earth by carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Now a new study, published Dec. 7 in the journal ACS Central Science, shows that the same meteorites might have brought life’s building blocks too.
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