A recent scientific study has revealed that when Earth first formed, it lacked the basic materials necessary for life. These materials were later introduced after a collision with another planet.
According to the Science Alert website, researchers from the University of Bern have shown , for the first time in a new study, how the chemical composition of early Earth was completed three million years after its formation (about 4.5 billion years ago).
Their results indicate that the ingredients of life (water, carbon compounds, sulfur, etc.) were introduced later, likely via a collision.
The study was conducted by Pascal Maurice Krotach and Klaus Mesger, postdoctoral researcher and emeritus professor of geochemistry (respectively) at the Institute of Geosciences (GEO) at the University of Bern.
Their results showed that Earth's composition was completed less than three million years after the formation of the solar system, providing the first experimental data on the original composition of the early Earth.
"Our solar system formed about 4.568 million years ago," Krautach explained in a statement from the University of Bern. "Considering that it only took up to 3 million years for the chemical properties of Earth to be determined, this is surprisingly fast."
These results support the giant impact hypothesis, which states that the Earth-Moon system formed as a result of a massive collision about 4.5 billion years ago between the early Earth and a Mars-sized body (Theia).
It is also assumed that Theia formed further out in the solar system , and that its composition would have included more volatile elements, including water.
Thus, the team's analyses suggest that early Earth was a dry, rocky planet, and that its collision with Theia introduced all the elements that made life possible here.
Their findings also contribute significantly to our understanding of the processes that operated in the early solar system, and provide clues about how and when life emerged.
These results may also be important in the search for extraterrestrial life (astrobiology), determining whether rocky planets orbiting closer to their suns could contain the ingredients needed for life.
"Earth owes its current suitability for life not to continuous evolution, but perhaps to a fortuitous event—a late collision with a water-rich alien body," says Krautash. "This demonstrates that the suitability of life in the universe is not a given."
According to the website, this collision event is still not fully understood, and models are needed that can fully explain not only the physical properties of the Earth and Moon, but also their chemical compositions and isotopic signatures.
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