Tue, Feb 07, 2023 03:00 am (Yemen Voice: Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper)
A research team led by scientists from “Imperial College London” was able to reveal that a large part of the Earth’s stock of volatile chemicals had arrived from space, and it is interesting that some of these materials are included in the biological composition of living organisms.
volatile chemicals
Volatile chemicals are defined as a group of chemical elements or compounds that evaporate, that is, change from a solid or liquid form to a gaseous form, at low temperatures, and are usually associated with the earth’s crust or in the atmosphere.
Examples of volatile substances are water, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, which are elements that are already included in the structure of living cells, along with other elements such as zinc and compounds such as methane, sulfur dioxide, and ammonia.
To reach these results, which were published in the journal “Science”, the researchers examined the chemical composition of 18 meteorites that fell to Earth at different time periods, 11 of which came from the outer solar system (beyond Jupiter), and the rest came from the inner solar system. .
Scientists’ analyzes have indicated that the ratios between the different isotopes of zinc in these meteorites are similar to the same proportions for half of the zinc stock on the planet, which indicates similar sources for both, which is likely, accordingly, that zinc and the rest of the other elements have come from space.
Genesis of life
The scientific opinion that the sources of many important elements on the surface of the earth and in the human body preceded this study. It can be the original source of phosphorous found in living cells.
In addition, the matter extends to the composition of water in the Earth’s oceans, which previous research indicated corresponds to the composition of water on the surfaces of some meteorites.
According to a press release issued by Imperial College London on January 27, scientists in this range have already indicated that the source of the elements and volatile compounds on Earth was largely space, but they believed that this source was asteroids or comets coming from the inner solar system. .
But the new study, after analyzing the compounds of the 18 meteorites, indicated that the zinc isotope ratios were more consistent with meteorites from the outer solar system.
The researchers hope that these results will help achieve a better understanding of the forms of chemistry on Earth’s surface, and to confirm their results, they have already begun to examine the same theory, but for meteorites falling on Mars.
* Al Jazeera
