Cambridge study: comets likely didn't seed life on Earth
New research shows comet impacts were too fast and steep to preserve organic molecules needed for life.
What to know
- A new Cambridge study challenges the century-old theory that comets seeded Earth with life's chemical building blocks by showing impact conditions would vaporize fragile organic molecules.
- The research focused on hydrogen cyanide (HCN), the strongest candidate molecule comets carry; even this would survive only in extremely rare cases.
- Asteroids, which struck Earth far more frequently, or Earth's own chemical processes are now considered more plausible sources for prebiotic molecules.
Richard Anslow Lead author, Cambridge astronomerUniversity of Cambridge research team Study authors
How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Study suggests asteroids or Earth itself more likely sources of life's building blocks
The researchers propose that asteroids, which struck Earth far more frequently than comets, may have triggered the chemical reactions needed to create prebiotic molecules. Alternatively, life's ingredients may have formed on Earth without external help. The study found comet delivery was slightly more probable for Mars due to its thinner atmosphere.
“Most comets would have been traveling too fast and at too steep an angle to Earth for prebiotic compounds to survive impact with the planet, researchers contend October 28 in Scientific Reports.”
— Scientific Reports, Journal · source -
first by University of Cambridge, 10d ago · also Inshorts, theprint, Iosco County News Herald, Leader Publications, The Moore County News-Press, Community Newspaper Group +5
6 more headlines
- Comets didn't seed life on Earth after all, study suggests | The study was published in 'Scientific Reports' | Inshorts Inshorts · 9d ago
- Did comets bring life to Earth? It is a ‘romantic idea’, but highly unlikely theprint · 9d ago
- Did life on Earth hitch a ride on a comet? Study may have answer Iosco County News Herald · 9d ago
- Did comets help start life on Earth? A new study questions the idea and scientists are baffled The Economic Times · 8d ago
- Comets probably didn’t seed life on Earth, and Mars was a better target Martin Cid Magazine · 8d ago
- Did comets seed life on Earth? A new study says EarthSky · 8d ago
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4 outlets Comet impacts may not have delivered life’s building blocks to early Earth, simulations suggest
first by Mezha.net, 11d ago · also Labroots, Science News, IFLScience
3 more headlines
- Comets unlikely to have brought life's seeds to Earth Labroots · 11d ago
- Comets probably didn’t deliver life’s building blocks to Earth Science News · 11d ago
- Comets Are Unlikely To Have Seeded Earth With The Building Blocks Of Life IFLScience · 11d ago
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The speed and angle of impact would have destroyed most organic compounds from comets https://www. sciencenews.org/article/comet- chemistry-life-earth-speed-sharp # science # life # biology # chemistry
2 more of the top 3 · 24 posts in this stretch
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There is widespread agreement that all yoi need for life to spontaneously erupt is an oxygen reduced environment and a good mix of atoms and a somewhat warm temperature. There are 2 points in cosmic history this could have most plausibly happened for Earth based life. 1 is the primordial Earth itself as you described. The other, which has recently…
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Computer Simulations Suggest Building Blocks of Life Didn't Arrive on Prehistoric Comets (cnn.com) Link: https:// science.slashdot.org/story/26/ 10/31/2142240/computer-simulations-suggest-building-blocks-of-life-didnt-arrive-on-prehistoric-comets
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Study finds comet impacts would have destroyed most organic molecules
The research shows that comets striking early Earth would have moved too fast and at angles too steep for HCN and other prebiotic molecules to survive the immense heat of impact. Computer models indicate only comets wider than about 300 feet could make it through Earth's early atmosphere without burning up.
“It would really have to be a one-in-a-million occurrence. We can't rule out for certain that it happened that way. But it seems to be a really rare occurrence — at best, a one-off fluke.”
— Richard Anslow -
Is this a statistical assessment and am I stupid for asking that if they’re on earth, they should be on the moon too? I bring up the moon because these compounds would have been destroyed anyway when the moon collided with earth.
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Cambridge researchers publish comet-delivery study in Scientific Reports
A University of Cambridge-led team released findings from computer simulations testing whether comets could have brought life's chemical ingredients to early Earth. The study focused on hydrogen cyanide (HCN), a molecule commonly carried by comets and known to produce fats, sugars, and nucleic acids when concentrated.
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first by Open Access Government, 10d ago · also The Brighter Side of News, The New Indian Express, WHIO TV, Times of India, CTV News, KSL News +6
9 more headlines
- New discovery challenges the long-held theory that comets seeded life on Earth The Brighter Side of News · 9d ago
- Comets unlikely to have seeded life on early Earth: Study The New Indian Express · 9d ago
- Study Doubts Comets WHIO TV · 8d ago
- Did comets really start life on Earth? New study challenges long-held theory The Times of India · 8d ago
- New study casts doubt on theory about the role comets played in kick-starting life on Earth CTV News · 8d ago
- The Components For Life May Not Have Arrived By Comet Hackaday · 5d ago
- New Study Suggests Comets Didn't Bring Life To Early Earth After All NDTV · 5d ago
- Comets may not have kick-started life on Earth after all Chemical & Engineering News · 5d ago
- Did Life on Earth Get Lucky? Most of 100,000 Simulated Comet Impacts Failed to Deliver a Key Ingredient for Life Nature World News · 5d ago
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first by Forbes, 11d ago · also Nanowerk
1 more headline
- Comets probably didn't seed life on Earth after all, new study suggests Nanowerk · 11d ago
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What people are saying 20 voices from 2 sites · best of 25 · verbatim
- Oct 31
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And once again, Sir Fred (RIP) misses the mark. First with “Steady State” and then with “panspermia” (an unfortunate name, not as catchy as “The Big Bang”). My physicist step-father had Sir Fred over for dinner once when I was in my early 20s, during which he waxed eloquent on the theory. I mean, there’s a good deal of plausibility about it…
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Yeah, the first signs of life are about as old as the first signs of liquid water, around 4 billion years ago. Multicellular animals didn't come around until about 600 million years ago. The first hominids showed up single-digit millions of years ago. Agriculture is about 10 thousand years old, large scale industry a couple hundred years old. The…
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Water cycle. The presence of water makes the rock less rigid and essentially acts as a lubricant.
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# CNN # News New study casts doubt on theory about the role comets played in kick-starting life on Earth
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Are they suggesting that intelligence on the scale of humans is the rare thing and life is everywhere? It is absolutely possible. Earth's life spent a huuuge chunk of its existence as single-celled organisms, and even multicellular life took a long time until apes came up who started to use fire and melt metals. And we may be well on our way to…
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Wasn't the theory regarding comets that one landed during the right conditions on earth and a few dozen early microbes started reproducing in a puddle that was mostly shielded from direct UV? It's possible that every rocky planet with abundant water in the right teasing orbit around their star has life but then where are all the radio signals from…
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I really don't need this to become another "eggs are bad for you/eggs are good for you" argument where there's no clear decisive winner and I'm just trying to eat breakfast over here.
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There wasn't a "good mix of atoms" shortly after the big bang. Several generations of stars fusing elements together were necessary before there was any significant atomic diversity. The idea that life started in one place after the big bang and spread from there across the universe is much less likely than there being ideal environments for…
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The elements needed for cellular life aren’t rare, but the other building blocks might be. A planet having an active core to facilitate tectonic plates as an example, or the just to multicellular life as another one.
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Wait, what? People still thought we needed a "seed" from space in 2026? I thought we already realized everything life needed could be established on Earth.
- Oct 30
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No, Hydrogen and Helium make up like 98% of all matter in the universe Carbon is probably in the top 10, but is pretty rare, relatively speaking
- Oct 29
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True but weve hardly looked anywhere. We took a shot glass of ocean water and said "see, where's all the fish?"
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There are between 100 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way alone. One in a million would be 100,000-400,000 times in just our galaxy.
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Yeah 1 in a million is huge astronomically, I feel. 100+ billion stars per galaxy, 1+ trillion galaxies in just the observable universe alone? That’s an insane number of star systems.
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there’s a reason we are experiencing life here in the sol system on earth instead of say the Orion system on their second planet if they have one. It’s because the conditions and circumstances are just right to allow life to thrive to allow life to ponder why here and not there. So yes odds are small but we expect them to occur in the universe and…
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Doesnt the on in a million thing rather support the theory, and explain why there arnt more populated planets that we've found?
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Here of course, or maybe somewhere else in the Solar System. Which means that life is probably very common throughout the Universe, if that's the case.
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It's addressed in the article. So where did the molecular seeds of life on Earth come from? The researchers say there are several possibilities, including the synthesis of these molecules following the impact of asteroids, which hit the Earth far more frequently than comets. Or the chemical precursors formed from processes that occurred on Earth…
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I mean even if Earth was seeded by life on a comet, that life still had to originate from somewhere, somehow
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Earth being habitable in the first place already seems like a one in a million occurrence