By studying zinc isotopes in meteorites, scieists from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London have concluded that a significa part of the water and vital substances of the Earth came from outside the solar system. These findings show that the necessary conditions for the formation of life on earth do not depend only on the right distance from the sun, and the existence of vital substances on the planet is also very importa.
According to Tekna Technology Media Astronomy News Service, one of the fundameal questions about the origin of life is where the materials needed for the evolution of life come from. In this study, scieists looked for the answer to this question by examining zinc isotopes in meteorites. Zinc is a chemical eleme that, when formed in meteorites, has a unique composition that can be used to ideify the origin of volatiles.
Volatile substances are elemes or compounds that turn io vapor at a relatively low temperature. These substances are very importa to living things because they coain six common chemicals vital to living things, including water. The research team analyzed zinc isotopes in a large sample of meteorites that originated from differe asteroids. They then tracked the arrival of differe types of zinc over the tens of millions of years that our planet was accreting material.
They found that molten asteroids make up about 70% of our planet’s total mass, but have delivered only about 10% of its zinc coe. This means that 90% on Earth came from “unmelted” asteroids with higher amous of iact volatiles. It follows that these unmelted space rocks must also have delivered large amous of volatiles to the forming Earth. Martinez added: “We know that the distance between a planet and its star is a determining factor in creating the necessary conditions for that planet to maiain liquid water on its surface. “But our results show that there is no guaraee that planets have enough material to host water and other volatiles in the first place – regardless of their physical state.”
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