Computer Simulations Suggest Building Blocks of Life Didn't Arrive on Prehistoric Comets
CNN reports: The popular theory that comets were crucial in kick-starting life on Earth billions of years ago may not hold up, according to new computer simulations that counter decades of scientific thinking. The finding suggests the fragile organic molecules supposedly carried by the icy objects would have been destroyed on impact, upending an established origin of life theory that dates back…
New research challenges the long-held belief that comets played a key role in delivering prebiotic molecules to Earth billions of years ago. According to computer simulations published in the journal Scientific Reports, the organic molecules thought to be crucial for the origin of life would have been destroyed upon impact with early Earth.
The study, led by Richard Anslow while he was a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, found that most comet collisions in Earth's past would have been too violent for the fragile molecules to survive. Only about 54% of the simulations showed no impact at all, while the remaining 46% experienced at least one impact. The team suggests that alternative sources of organic material, such as asteroids, may have played a more significant role in the early development of life on Earth and potentially other planets like Mars.
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