Thursday, August 29, 2013

Sciences. And if life on Earth came from Mars? - Ouest-France

If life arose on Earth, thanks to the metal straight from Mars, delivered directly to our planet by a meteorite, according to a new theory presented this Thursday by a researcher.

“There seems to be accumulating evidence that we really are all Martians and that life began on Mars before coming to Earth on a rock” says Steven Brenner, a professor at the Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in Gainesville (United States), which presents his theory on Thursday at an international conference on geochemistry in Florence, Italy ..

The metal from Mars would have “the formation of a primitive life”

analyzes recently carried out a Martian meteorite showed them the presence of molybdenum and boron, a metalloid which would have helped to protect the RNA, a primitive precursor of DNA.

But in ancient times when life appeared on Earth, molybdenum oxide was used to prevent carbon molecules – the building blocks of all life – to deteriorate and eventually tar , said Mr. Brenner.

“It is only when molybdenum is highly oxidized he is able to influence the formation of a Primitive Life e,” said in a statement M . Brenner

Our life on Earth due to a “stroke of luck”

“This form of molybdenum could not be present on Earth at the time when the first elements of life appeared, because there are three billion years, the surface Earth contained only very little oxygen, unlike Mars “, he said.

At the time the solar system was particularly agitated and the Earth was constantly bombarded by comets and asteroids. Our neighbor also in March, which explains how the Martian debris could be thrown back into space to finish their race on Earth, trapped by its gravitational field.

“It’s a fluke, because the Earth is by far the better of the two planets to harbor life. If our hypothetical Martian ancestors remained on Mars, there might not be here to talk about “, concludes the researcher.

Comets and asteroids, life on Earth is surely also

Other theories explain the emergence of life on Earth by the water provided on the blue planet by comets, composed of ice and inherited from the formation of the solar system cosmic dust.

Another hypothesis called “panspermia” , suggests that bacteria embedded as stowaways on asteroids have ended up crashing to Earth to grow in its warm oceans and welcoming.

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