Fox News just reported that the NASA scientists had offered the world brand new clues on how life started on our planet.
They managed to do this after reproducing the origins of life on the ocean floor.
Building the ocean’s floor from 4 billion years ago
Experts made the ocean’s floors from 4 billion years ago as humanity tries to understand how life started on our planet and where else it might be found.
The study, conducted by astrobiologists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and looks at how life began in hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor.
“Understanding how far you can go with just organics and minerals before you have an actual cell is really important for understanding what types of environments life could emerge from,” lead investigator Laurie Barge said.
She continued and explained that “Also, investigating how things like the atmosphere, the ocean and the minerals in the vents all impact this can help you understand how likely this is to have occurred on another planet.”
The team of experts has been able to recreate the seafloor by filing beakers with mixtures that were quite similar to the ones which existed in the primordial ocean.
The mixture has been heated to 158 degrees Fahrenheit, they removed oxygen, and they added iron hydroxide, or “green rust.” This was abundant in the early days of the planet.
“We’ve shown that in geological conditions similar to early Earth, and maybe to other planets, we can form amino acids and alpha hydroxy acids from a simple reaction under mild conditions that would have existed on the seafloor,” Barge continued.
Closing words
Fox News highlights that NASA did not create life itself in the experiment.
The implications of the research are crucial especially since brand new celestial bodies are discovered and some of them have the components required to host life.
I have been blogging and posting articles for over eight years, but my passion for writing dates back in 2000. I am especially enthusiastic about technology, science, and health-related issues. When I’m not researching and writing the latest news, I’m either watching sci-fi and horror movies or checking out places worth visiting and building deep memories for later in life. I believe in empathy and continually improving myself.