“20 years ago it would have been heresy”. Life on Earth emerged earlier than thought – TVN Meteo

“20 years ago it would have been heresy. Finding evidence for the existence of life even 3.8 billion years ago was shocking,” – says one of the authors of the paper, Mark Harrison, a geochemist at the University of California.

The first mold Life could appear “almost immediately” after the formation of the Earth, which took place more than 4.5 billion years ago, adds Harrison.

Life as old as the planet

new study suggests that life there before the Big bombing, which period in the early history of the solar system, just after the formation of the planets (approx. 3.9 billion years ago), when I wrote the majority of impact craters on the moon. Scientists thought that at that time the earth was dry and dead. The latest discovery shows that was not the case.

The young Earth was certainly not the hellish, dry, boiling planet. We do not find any evidence for this – says Harrison and suggests that she might have a lot more like what we see today.

Analysis of zircon

The early birth of life on Earth, researchers conclude based on the analysis of zirconia, which formed in the molten rocks in Western Australia. Zircon is a hard mineral, synthetic equivalent which is used as imitation diamonds. For researchers in Earth’s history zircons they are something of a time capsule, because their crystals is stored information about the environment in which they were created.

The researchers looked at 656 cyrkonom in which interior were present darker particles. As many as 79 of them analyzed using Raman spectroscopy – a technique that allows you to see in three dimensions and to evaluate the molecular and chemical structure of particles, including organic.

One of the zircons contain graphite, ie pure carbon, and this in two places. And coal is a key ingredient of life on Earth.

Graphite is older than zirconium, whose age was estimated to be 4.1 billion years old (scientists calculate it by measuring the ratio of uranium and lead). The study authors do not know, however, by how much.

Young Earth alive?

Harrison reminds popular among some experts believe that the universe may be full of life.

– It seems that the simple forms on Earth, it is formed rather quickly. Many millions of years are needed, however, so simple forms evolved into organisms capable of photosynthesis – notes.

Coal present in the zirconium, however, has a special feature – a certain ratio of carbon isotopes C12 to C13, which is a trace photosynthesis. According to the authors, this means that you have to start to think differently about the young Earth.