The Far-Flung Origin of Life's Building Blocks: Researchers Uncover “Completely Unexpected” Findings - SciTechDaily

Imperial College London researchers have discovered the probable distant origin of Earth’s volatile chemicals, some of which form the building blocks of life, through the analysis of meteorites.

Professor Rehkämper added: “This contribution of outer Solar System material played a vital role in establishing the Earth’s inventory of volatile chemicals.

It looks as though without the contribution of outer Solar System material, the Earth would have a much lower amount of volatiles than we know it today – making it drier and potentially unable to nourish and sustain life.”

Professor Rehkämper said: “The widely held theory is that the Moon formed when a huge asteroid smashed into an embryonic Earth about 4.5 billion years ago.

Analyzing zinc isotopes in moon rocks will help us to test this hypothesis and determine whether the colliding asteroid played an important part in delivering volatiles, including water, to the Earth.”

Reference: “Nucleosynthetic isotope anomalies of zinc in meteorites constrain the origin of Earth’s volatiles” by Rayssa Martins, Sven Kuthning, Barry J. Coles, Katharina Kreissig and Mark Rehkämper, 26 January 2023, Science.