Meteorites impact a key in understanding origin of life on Earth: Researchers

According to a study published in Astrobiology,  ncies like National Aeronautics and Administration (NASA) and European ncy (ESA) should study craters in great detail. study suggests that re can be locations for seeking habitats for extraterrestrial life. Till date, 200 impact craters have been investigated and ir existence has been confirmed on Earth using tools like fieldwork, geophysics, satellite data, and various laboratory analysis techniques.

Study of meteorites

Director of Western's Institute for Earth and Exploration, Gordon Osinski said, "re are a lot of hyposes for where life started on Earth and where we should look for life on Mars, but we are actually overlooking a major geological force and a key habitat in understanding origin of life and that's meteorite impacts and ir resulting craters". Osinski led a team of experts from University of Edinburgh, Georgetown University, and University of Sourn California.

Read: 2011 ES4 Asteroid Had Its Closest Approach To Earth's Surface On September 1

Talking about objective of study Osinski said, "If you ask anyone to imagine what happens when you have kilometre-size chunks of rock hitting Earth, it's typically destructive. It's an extinction event like one that killed disaurs". He added, "What we are trying to do here is turn that idea up on its head and say yes, impact is initially destructive, but it also delivers building blocks for life and creates new habitats for life. y essentially create an oasis for life".

study emphasizes on need of researching on how meteorite impact craters. Osinski and his partners put forth that keeping in mind imapct and increased frequency during first 500 million years of Solar System history, it was concluded that impact may represent sites where life originated on earth. Talking about sites, Osinski said "I put my money on meteorite impacts as place where life could have originated on Earth, but we will never kw. Unfortunately, due to billions of years of erosion, plate tectonics, and volcanism, we've lost vast majority of ancient rock record on Earth. So we're never going to kw exactly where or even when, to be honest, life originated on Earth". 

Read: 2011 ES4 Asteroid To Skim Past Earth On Sept 1 At A Distance Of 120000 Km, Closest Yet

According to Osinki, re is hope for Mars too. As a part of study, he explored mars using Perseverance and ExoMars. He concluded that scientists might be able to figure out origin of life as long as y are looking in right place. He said, "re are or impact craters on Mars that may have been better to explore with se ideas in mind," said Osinski. "But Perseverance is going to land in Jezero Crater and re is evidence of minerals such as clays formed through hydrormal activity. It's a good place to start to explore role of meteorite impacts in origin of life, as long as y look out for habitats, nutrients, and building blocks for life that we outlined in our study".

Read: NASA's First-ever OGO Satellite To Return To Earth On August 29

Also Read: Mars Made Its Closest Approach To Earth On This Day In 2003; Read More

(Im Credits: Unsplash)