spacetoday.net: Comet collisions can create building blocks for life

Comet collisions can create building blocks for life

Posted: Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 6:32 AM ET (1032 GMT)
Comets striking the surface of a terrestrial planet can create amino acids, essential building blocks for life, scientists reported this week. In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists fired projectiles into icy surfaces with compositions like those seen in comets. The energy of the impacts created several different types of amino acids. Scientists argue this is evidence that comets colliding with the early Earth would also have created amino acids, and thus provided some of the essential compounds needed for life to start. Similar processes could also have taken place on other terrestrial planets, like Mars, or even when meteors struck the surfaces of icy worlds, like moons in the outer solar system.