Building blocks of life can spring into existence spontaneously when icy comets smash into planets, a study has shown.
A similar process can create amino acids - bits of proteins - when a rocky meteorite strikes an ice-covered world.
The discovery suggests that life could be getting a kick start just about everywhere in the universe.
How often the building blocks end up constructing proteins and living organisms is an unanswered question.
But the research fills in another piece of the puzzle of life's origins on Earth.
Scientists believe that about the time life first emerged, between 4.5 and 3.8 billion years ago, Earth was being bombarded by comets and meteorites.
‘Our work shows that the basic building blocks of life can be assembled anywhere in the Solar System and perhaps beyond,’ said Dr Zita Martins, from Imperial College London.
‘However, the catch is that these building blocks need the right conditions in order for life to flourish.’
Excitingly, our study widens the scope for where these important ingredients may be formed in the Solar System and adds another piece to the puzzle of how life on our planet took root.’
Proteins, the giant molecules that form living tissue, are made from chains of amino acids whose assembly is directed by the genetic code.
Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the scientists show how when a comet impacts it creates a shock wave that generates the molecules needed for amino acids.
Heat from the impact the transforms these molecules into the protein building blocks.
The scientists point out that abundant ice on the surfaces of Enceladus and Europa, two moons orbiting Saturn and Jupiter, could provide the perfect conditions for producing amino acids from meteor impacts.
Co-author Dr Mark Price, from the University of Kent, said: ‘This process demonstrates a very simple mechanism whereby we can go from a mix of simple molecules, such as water and carbon-dioxide ice, to a more complicated molecule, such as an amino acid.
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