“This work makes it possible for us to understand part of the study,” said Benjamin Hess, a graduate student in the Department of Earth Sciences and Planetary Science at Yale University and the first author of the study. form life on Earth, and possibly extend to study of planets – life could be forming on those planets in a similar way “. The origin of life also commonly known as the process of life generation (abiogenesis) is a term for the different theories about the formation and development of life on Earth. Of these theories, the most popular up to now are the scientific theories that say: this is the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter, from inorganic substances into single organic compounds. simplified, then evolved into today’s world. As we all know, phosphorus is an essential component of life on Earth. Even looking for extraterrestrial life in space, scientists will look for signs of phosphorus. However, billions of years ago, phosphorus was trapped in insoluble minerals and was difficult to escape and exert its effects. Therefore. This issue has been of interest to scientists for many years, who want to know how phosphorus is converted into an easier to use form, thereby promoting life-generating processes. Researchers suggest that the phosphorus that helps create life on Earth may come from schreibersite, a rare but very common mineral in meteorites. When lightning strikes soil or sand (derived from meteorites) on the ground, it can instantly melt and then solidify to form natural glass – fulgurite (also known as clayey rock. ). These meteors can be submerged, meaning that in the presence of water, the phosphorus in this mineral can be dissolved outward and potentially become part of a chemical reaction. Although the details of life’s formation on Earth are still unknown, the popular scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living entities to living entities is not an event. single, which is an increasingly complex process involving molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autogenesis and the appearance of cell membranes. Although the occurrence of the origin of life is not controversial among scientists, there is no single accepted model for the origin of life. Initially many scientists agreed with this idea, but through intensive research and statistics, they found that from 3.5 to 4.5 billion years before life on Earth was born. The number of meteors on our planet is not enough to be life-boosting factors. In the new study, Hess et al. Proposed that phosphorus on Earth could come from lightning strikes. They believe that this is more likely than that of elemental phosphorus coming from meteorites, because compared to asteroid collisions, the number of lightning strikes Earth each year is relatively stable. “This makes lightning an important way to study the origin of life,” Hess said. The team also used computer modeling to estimate how many lightning strikes occurred on Earth during the critical period in the beginning of life. They found that there could be between 1 billion and 5 billion lightning strikes the Earth each year, and 100 thousand to 1 billion of them falling on the Earth’s surface. Earth remains the only place in the universe known to life, and fossil evidence from Earth facilitates most studies of the origin of life. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years, the earliest irrefutable evidence of life on Earth dates back at least 3.5 billion years ago, and possibly as early as the Ancient Pre-Tai era ( 3.6 to 4.0 billion years ago), after the geological crust began to harden after the molten Hadean Eon. In May 2017, scientists found possible evidence of early terrestrial life in the 3.48 billion year old geyserite and other related mineral deposits (often found around water springs). hot and geysers) discovered in Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. According to the study’s estimates, the number of lightning strikes on Earth could reach 10 ^ 17 to 10 ^ 18 in a billion years. Researchers suggest that under the impact of too many lightning strikes, after 1 billion years, ores formed by lightning strike the ground can release phosphorus that can participate in chemical reactions in the presence of water. In other words, it was lightning in this period that produced enough phosphorus to explain the existence of phosphorus at the origin of life on Earth.

Illustration of lightning hitting Earth 4 billion years ago.

However, according to geologists, lightning strikes are just as important as meteorites to create perfect conditions for life on Earth.

Scientists believe that the minimum amount of minerals present on early Earth was caused by billions of lightning strikes.

Detect important minerals

A study published in Nature Communications led by scientist Benjamin Hess of the School of Earth and Environment, at the University of Leeds (UK) looked at the possibility that lightning could contribute to life.

The scientists found that life could develop on Earth-like planets through the same mechanism at any time if the atmospheric conditions were right.

Hess et al. Studied an exceptionally large and primitive fulgurite sample. This is a rock created when lightning strikes the ground. This model was formed when lightning struck a house in Glen Ellyn, Illinois (USA) in 2016 and donated to the Geology department at the nearby Wheaton College.

The Leeds researchers were initially interested in how fulgurite was formed, but were later intrigued when they discovered that there was an unusual amount of a phosphorus mineral called schreibersite in the sample at Glen Ellyn.

Phosphorus is essential for life and plays an important role in all life processes from movement to growth and reproduction. Phosphorus has been present on Earth since infancy and is in minerals that cannot be dissolved in water, however, schreibersite can.

Mr. Hess is a graduate student at Yale University, Connecticut (USA), said, “Many people believe that life on Earth originates from shallow surface waters according to the famous” small warm pond “concept of the house. Darwin Science ”.

“Most models of how life might form on the Earth’s surface show that meteors carry small amounts of schreibersite.

Our research found a relatively large amount of shreibersite in fulgurite “- he said -” Lightning hits the Earth regularly, which proves that phosphorus is necessary for the origin of life on the Earth’s surface not only. rely on asteroid collisions.

Perhaps more importantly, this also means that the formation of life on another Earth could still take place long after meteoric collisions became rare.

The phosphorus minerals produced by the lightning bolts exceeded those from meteorites when Earth was about 3.5 billion years old (the age of the earliest known microscopic fossils), the team estimated. That underscores the importance of lightning to life on Earth.

Furthermore, lightning bolts are much less destructive than meteorite collisions, meaning they are less likely to interfere with fragile evolutionary paths in which life can
develope.

The fulgurite was excavated in Glen Ellyn, Illinois (USA).

The role of lightning quantity

Lightning is also a topic of interest to scientists when thinking about life on Earth in the early days because it leads to the production of gases like nitrous oxide that played a role in the origin of life. .

Hess and his other researchers used this existing research to investigate and review the rate of lightning strikes on early Earth. Today, we have 560 million lightning strikes a year.

Meanwhile, early Earth, this number was from 1 to 5 billion per year, of which 100 million to 1 billion lightning strikes the ground. Over a billion years, lightning strikes can reach 1 trillion and generate a lot of phosphorus.

In the early days, lightning struck more on Earth because there was more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide contributes to global temperatures and the higher the temperature, the more intense and frequent the storms are, Hess said.

“Carbon dioxide levels soared on Earth early after a Mars-sized object crashed into Earth and created the Moon 4.5 billion years ago. This also releases a lot of gas from inside the Earth, like carbon dioxide, which then gets trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere and leads to more lightning, ”explained Hess.

The fulgurite fragment is found in Glen Ellyn, Illinois (USA).

Expert review

Dr., Associate Professor of Geochemistry Jason Harvey and Professor of Geology and Structural Construction Sandra Piazolo at Leeds University’s School of Earth and Environment advised Mr. Hess on the above research project.

“The initial meteor bombardment was a one-time event in the Solar System,” said Dr. Harvey. When the planets reach their mass, the additional distribution of phosphorus from the meteorites becomes negligible.

On the other hand, lightning is not a one-off event, the elements necessary for the formation of life can thus be transferred to the surface of a planet. This means that life can appear on Earth-like planets at any given time.

Meanwhile, Professor Piazolo said: “The above interesting research opens the door to some future paths when searching for and analyzing in depth new fulgurite in the early Earth-like environment, analyzing The effect of heating on other minerals is to realize similar characteristics.

There is also a further analysis of this particularly well preserved fulgurite to determine the extent of the physical and chemical processes within it ”.

“All these studies will help to improve our understanding of the importance of fulgurite in changing the chemical environment of the Earth over time” – Professor Piazolo added.