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Scientists Just Found All 5 Genetic “Letters” of DNA and RNA on an Asteroid
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I think have completely misunderstood whats being said. I'm not talking about life evolving on pluto whatsover. I'm talking about precursor chemcicals for the evolution of life building up on pluto. And not through heat coming from the core of Pluto, but through surface chemistry happening from the repeated warming and cooling cycles of volitile ices on the planets surface as it passes around the sun. The relatively recent missions to Pluto confirm that there is strong evidence of an active geology on Pluto, but not one based on molten rock; one based on volitile ices (n2, n3, no3, co, c4, etc..), species which would be extremely short lived at earths surface temperature. This is evidenced by un-cratered areas across the surface where fresh ice has been deposited, compared with cratered areas which have suffered asteroid impacts. The proposal is that as Pluto comes close to the earth, these ices sublimate, and cause ice volcano eruptions, and then precipitate. But the idea of an active geology also creates the opportunity for more complex mineral species to arise. So it might be possible in Plutos very different geological cycle, there is the possibility that these volatile ices can form more complex minerals, like small single units of DNA, RNA, etc. Not life, but precursor chemistry for life. This article is further evidence of that. Instead of a molten core and mantle process, imagine a surface geology of freeze thaw cycles which concentrate minerals. This same process/ principal could apply to asteroids. They might undergo a freeze thaw cycle with the volatile ices at their surface, which could create a mineral cycle resulting in the concentration of organics.
The part I'm coupling it with is other research that has recently demonstrated that hydrothermal vents tend to pop up where major asteroid impacts have occurred. Basically, several large lakes with hydrothermal vents as a result of an asteroid impact. I think also the crater in the gulf of mexico.
So imagine the following scenario. An asteroid has been circling around some where in the solar system for hundreds of billions of years. Its big enough for a freeze thaw mineral cycle and organic precursors have been piling up for thousands of millennia; not life, but bits of the stuff of life. Then, bad luck day. It get its orbit perturbed in some manner, and its orbit ends up in a collision course with earth. It slams into a land surface some where. It forms a large crater, and because its a large crater, it forms a lake inside. At the bottom of the lake are hydro thermal vents.
We've now solved for most of the major challenges of abiogensis. Where do the precursors come from (a mineral cycle we're just learning about)? How do we concentrate them sufficiently (asteroid impacts which create craters)? And how do we introduce something which can support a novel chemical cycle which can further concentrate and accumulate chemistry to the point where even more complex molecules can arrive (proteins, DNA proper/ RNA proper, lipids, etc..).
