Artist's depiction of early earthNASA/JPL-CALTECH
Organic compounds from a meteorite may hold clues to the origin of life on Earth, according to a study published today (June 9) in Science. Water on the asteroid reacted with the rock to form organic compounds—including many scientists believe are the crucial ingredients that sparked life in Earth’s primordial oceans about 4 billion years ago.
“It’s real evidence of hydro-synthesis occurring in asteroids and creating compounds that might be biologically useful,” said Mark Sephton, a geochemist at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the study.
The space rock was discovered in 2000, after a meteoroid blazed through the atmosphere and fell in pieces to the frozen surface of Tagish Lake, in Northern British Columbia. A local man gathered nearly two pounds of ...
