Meteorite delivered "goodies" may have caused life on Earth!

Last updated on: December 1, 2006 at 6:41 am by Desh Kapoor

Meteorite delivered "goodies" may have caused life on Earth! 2006-12-01T06:41:06-06:00 Desh Kapoor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So life on Earth was a quirk of fate? Had the meteorite not hit the earth.. it would have been as lifeless as any other corner of the Universe… its like the entire Universe was conspiring for Earth to have life.. right temperature.. right size of sun.. correct material here.. and then just the right size of meteorite carrying the right minerals and correct amounts hits us.. and voila.. life emerges! Man.. are we lucky.. or what? Hope those loser Martians are listenin’ – heck they didnt get the right hits when it mattered.. no wonder they are so wonky and green with envy in our movies!

Meteorites rich in carbon and water fall to Earth once or twice every few decades. But when a truck-size meteorite crashed on frozen Tagish Lake in western Canada in 2000, researchers received a specimen speckled with stardust that promised to offer clues about the chemistry of our early solar system. Now NASA space scientists have isolated organic matter from the Tagish Lake meteorite that is at least as old as the solar system. Such ancient bodies may have delivered the raw materials for life on Earth.

Image: COURTESY OF KEIKO NAKAMURA-MESSENGER/NASA ORGANIC VIEW: Scanning transmission electron microscope image filtered to reveal carbon shows the organic matter (orange) in a piece of the Lake Tagish meteorite.

Researchers have tried to study organic matter from meteorites for at least 40 years in hopes of determining if elements key to biotic life came to our planet. Meteorites enter Earth’s atmosphere frozen, the ideal state for chemical investigation. But they usually thaw or become wet or contaminated before they can be preserved, increasing the risk of terrestrial contamination. Scientists value the Tagish Lake meteorite because it fell on a remote icy lake and was carefully handled.

Keiko Nakamura-Messenger and her colleagues at NASA’s Johnson Space Center found the organic matter by scanning thin sections of the meteorite with a transmission electron microscope and using advanced analytical techniques. Similar to particles found in comets, the submicroscopic globules in the Tagish Lake meteorite proved to consist predominantly of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. The ratios of the nitrogen and hydrogen isotopes in the hollow globules, measured with a spectrometer, indicate the “organics are completely indigenous to the meteorite” and did not come from Earth contamination, according to team member Michael Zolensky.

The isotope composition also provides evidence that the globules formed at near-absolute zero. This type of “exotic environment,” team member Scott Messenger says, never existed in the region of the solar system where Earth formed or near the asteroid belt; these cold temperatures, however, do persist in its outer reaches, the so-called Kuiper belt, and beyond. The globule’s rare isotope composition and the presence of particles from other stars that managed to survive the chaotic environment of the early solar system indicate the organic matter likely originated in the cold molecular cloud that gave birth to the planets.

Nakamura-Messenger suggests in the study that appears in the December 9 issue of Science that the globules initially formed as organic ice grains whose exteriors were chemically converted to more refractory compounds when hit with radiation. The shell initially protected the globule ice core from ultraviolet light, but the center later evaporated, leaving a hollow sphere of organic matter. Alternatively, the globules could have originated as icy grains that were exposed to the alkaline solutions in the Tagish Lake meteorite’s parent asteroid, hollowing out the center. In either case, the globules formed floating freely in the outskirts of our solar system. Zolensky says they are “a possible habitat to protect and shield organic chemistry.” He adds that because these meteorites presumably fell on the early Earth, they may have delivered the globular “building blocks toward life.”

“We’re sure that these [globules] are not alive,” Messenger remarks. “But they may have been important ingredients for the first life-forms.”

read more

Sciences

Previous Post

December 1, 2006

Perils of Immigrants' Value Imposition

Next Post

December 1, 2006 Civil Defence and the Atom Bomb

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aarti Achievement and Leadership AfPak Africa Annual and Year-end Asia Audio Australia Behavioural Sciences Bhagwad Gita Bhagwad Gita Blogging Blogs Business Business Intelligence Business Strategy Cannes Careers Chanakya China Conservation Corruption Creative Daily Links Desh Poems Development & Welfare Devotional Audio Devotional Songs Drama Earth Economics Education Entertainment Environment Europe Everyday Quotes Featured Articles Featured Songs Finance Flickr Pictures Food Geo-Political Global Warming Globalization Health & Medicine Hinduism Historic History Humour India Indian Culture Indian music Indian Weddings Israel Issues Legal Link Love Minorities Misc Motivation and Personal Development Movie Lists Movie Reviews Movies Mumbai terror attacks Natural Disasters Nature News Outsourcing Pakistan Parenting Personal Philosophy Poetry Politics Poverty Quotes Recipe Regular Blog Post Relationships Religion Religious/Spiritual Audio Sciences Showcase Slideshow South Asia Special Stories Spiritual Quotes Spirituality Sports Stories Strategy Technology Technology Terrorism Travel Uncategorized US Video Women Women_s Rights Worship Yoga

Select a Month December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 September 2014 August 2014 January 2014 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

"For all have sinned, and all have fallen short of the ______ of God."

Select your answer to see how you score.

Glory Standards Expectations Sight