Some of the raw materials for our genetic make up originated from outer space, a British study has contended.
Scientists have claimed some building blocks of life may have originated from outer space. Image: Fragment of the Murchison meteorite (at right) and isolated individual particles (shown in the test tube). Credit U.S. Dept of Energy
Researchers at the Imperial College in London have found that molecules identified in the Murchison meteorite, which crashed into Australia in 1969, could only have been formed in outer space, debunking previous studies which had concluded the meteorite had contaminated upon impact with the Earth.
The team has found the molecules uracil and xanthine, known as nucleobases and which are precursors to the compounds which make up DNA and RNA, are surely extraterrestrial and could have played an important role in the origin of life of Earth.
"We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoric fragments for use in genetic coding which enabled them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations," said Zita Martins, a researcher in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London and the lead author of the study.
"We know that meteorites very similar to the Murchison meteorite, which is the one we analysed, were delivering the building blocks of life to Earth 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago," Dr Martins said.
She added that both uracil and xanthine are present in our DNA and RNA. The team analysed the space rocks and found the molecules contained carbon-13, a heavy form of carbon which could only have been formed under extraterrestrial conditions.
However scientists are still debating which of the building blocks of life originated here on planet Earth and which may have come from outer space.
"We don't know the answer yet," said David Deamer, a chemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz to Space.com. "Most people would say that both contributed to the organic compounds available on Earth, but we don't know with certainty how much of one compared to the other."
The findings are published in the June 15 issue of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
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