Did comets kick-start life on Earth? Chemists find missing piece of puzzle

The origin of life on Earth has been a matter of intense debate throughout human history. Even today, scientists don't know whether the molecular building blocks of life were created on Earth or whether they were brought here by comets and meteorites. This is obviously hugely important – if they were delivered to Earth then it seems plausible that they may have been transported to other planets, too.

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The molecular building blocks of life are organic compounds that can be assembled into proteins, RNA and DNA in living cells. To date, scientists have found most of these compounds in meteorites, comets, and interstellar dust. But the sugar ribose, which forms the backbone of RNA, has never been detected in this context. Now experimental results, published in the journal Science, suggest that even ribose can form in comets – strengthening the idea that comets kick-started life on Earth.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-comets-kick-start-life-earth-chemists.html#jCp