For years, we have been told that life on Earth came from asteroids and probably other planets such as Mars. However, per a new study, interplanetary dust might very well be the building blocks of life as we know it.
According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, our planet could be surrounded by both water and organic material, floating around in space. This means that the dust particles that surrounds the Earth and constantly rains down could potentially be one of the building blocks of life. It's a wild claim without substance to back it up, but in many ways, it makes sense.
"It is a thrilling possibility that this influx of dust has acted as a continuous rainfall of little reaction vessels containing both the water and organics needed for the eventual origin of life on Earth and possibly Mars," study co-author and associate researcher of the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Hope Ishii, said.
In short, tiny amounts of organics and water left over from the birth of our solar system could be floating around in space as space dust. This dust could potentially make their way to the surface of nearby asteroids, moons and planets. If this proves to be true, then we could be witnessing the beginning of mankind and every single living being on Earth.
This theory isn't quite new to scientists, because they have long suspected that organics, water and other key building blocks of life are delivered to Earth surface and potentially other planets in the solar system by riding on the back of asteroids. This new research should not be seen as a brand new theory of how life appears on Earth for the first time, but an extension of the original.
When it comes down to asteroids, these space rocks import frozen water molecule from other parts of the universe. However, interplanetary dust particles are not the same, as they are actually products of solar winds that were blasted with hydrogen ions. This blast shakes up the atoms of the silicate mineral crystals inside the interplanetary dust particles. In turn, the process creates water molecules by combining oxygen with hydrogen.
"Perhaps more exciting," Ishii said, "interplanetary dust, especially dust from primitive asteroids and comets, has long been known to carry organic carbon species that survive entering the Earth's atmosphere, and we have now demonstrated that it also carries solar-wind-generated water. So we have shown for the first time that water and organics can be delivered together."
To simplify, the existence of all life on Earth have been floating around in space since probably the beginning of time. Still, Ishii is not ready to conclude that interplanetary dust particles with water molecules are the cause for the vast oceans on our planet.
"In no way do we suggest that it was sufficient to form oceans, for example," said Ishii. "However, the relevance of our work is not the origin of the Earth's oceans but that we have shown continuous, co-delivery of water and organics intimately intermixed."
