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According to the calculations of scientists from the United States and Britain, lightning could provide enough phosphorous compounds to support the first life on Earth.
And Nature Communications notes that in order for life to appear on Earth as we know it, a very balanced set of primary elements must be present. One of these is phosphorous, the main component of DNA, RNA, and cell membrane lipids. To be incorporated into organic molecules, it must be bioavailable, that is, in a soluble, reactive state.
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But the abiotic phosphorous found on Earth is found in insoluble minerals, with the exception of the mineral schipersite (a rare phosphide for nickel and iron), and its chemical formula Fe, Ni (3P), which was discovered in meteorites, so it was believed that biological phosphorus fell to Earth from space.
And scientists from Yale University of America and the University of Leeds in Britain suggest an alternative source for the mineral schipersite and the phosphorous in it. After studying lightning sticks – structures in rocks, they arise in an area exposed to lightning, and are mainly composed of sintered silica. Researchers have discovered schipersite mineral in the form of glass formations with the help of spectroscopy methods.
“This study helped us understand how life originated on Earth, and how it is still in its emergence stage on other Earth-like planets,” says scientist Benjamin Hess, from Yale University. “Partly because everything starts with phosphorus.”
The results of the researchers’ models showed that, during the billions of years that passed since the earth’s formation before life emerged on it, lightning was able to produce sufficient quantities of bioavailable phosphide in the form of phosphides, phosphates and hypophosphates, to show the earliest life on Earth.
The researchers point out that about 560 million lightning flashes occur annually on Earth. Based on the high electrical activity of the early atmosphere, according to their calculations, there were approximately 5 billion lightning flashes, of which between a million and a billion would reach Earth. This is equivalent over a billion years of Earth’s age 0.1 to a quintillion (10 to the 18th) flash. That is, the amount of schipersite produced by each flash and the land area at the time, according to their calculations, ranged between 110 and 11,000 kilograms of jet phosphorous annually. And this amount, they believe, is greater than that produced by falling meteorites, and is sufficient for the emergence of the first life forms on Earth.
The researchers point out that this hypothesis has many advantages compared to the “meteor” hypothesis, first – the level of lightning flashes remains constant over millions and billions of years, while the number of meteorites that fall to the ground is not constant. And secondly, the phenomenon of lightning is widespread in the tropics, where theoretically primitive life arose.
According to the researchers, the presence of electrical charges in the atmosphere could become an important marker for searching for life on other planets.
Source: Novosti
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