A new study suggests that massive fireballs from the outer reaches of the solar system transported the building components of life to Earth 4.6 billion years ago.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Imperial College London discovered that these old meteorites had potassium and zinc-containing carbonaceous chondrite.
Volatile Chemicals Of Earth Similar To Meteorites
Potassium aids in the production of cell fluids, while zinc is essential for DNA synthesis.
The study discovered that these space rocks comprised 10% of the space rocks that collided with the planet during its formation.
Non-carbonaceous (NC) material from the inner solar system contributed the remaining 90%. Dr. Nicole Nie, the study’s principal author, told SWS, Our investigations complement and validate each other’s conclusions in numerous ways.
Potassium is the least volatile of the moderately volatile elements, while zinc is one of the most volatile.
The meteorites contributed 20% of the planet’s potassium and 50% of its zinc.
Both are volatiles, which are elements or compounds that transition from solid or liquid to vapor at relatively low temperatures.
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Solar System
Professor Mark Rehkamper of Imperial College London’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering said in a statement, ‘Our data indicate that almost half of Earth’s zinc stockpile was delivered by debris from outside Jupiter’s orbit.
Based on existing predictions of the formation of the early Solar System, this was utterly unexpected. A previous study revealed that the Earth formed nearly completely from material from the inner Solar System, which scientists assumed to be the primary source of Earth’s volatile compounds.
However, the current study provides the first evidence that carbonaceous meteorites from asteroids in the outer main belt contributed to the formation of the Earth.
This transfer of material from the outer Solar System was crucial in developing the Earth’s inventory of volatile compounds, according to Rehkamp.
It appears that without the contribution of material from the outer Solar System, the Earth would have a significantly lower amount of volatiles, making it drier and perhaps incapable of sustaining life.
Eleven meteorites came from the inner zone, while the remaining seven came from the outer regions. The relative abundances of zinc’s five distinct forms or isotopes were then measured.
They then compared each isotopic fingerprint with Earth samples to estimate how much these materials contributed to the Earth’s zinc inventory, revealing that carbonaceous bodies contributed less than ten percent of Earth’s mass.
Material with a high concentration of zinc and other volatile elements is also expected to be highly prevalent in water, providing insight into the origin of the Earth’s water.
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