Genetic Material Found in Meteorites

June 13th, 2008

It has long been theorized that life originally came from the stars. There is even that crazy theory out there for sale that I always loved called Panspermia, in which it was thought that life came here carried on celestial fragments that eventually landed in our atmosphere.

Scientists from Europe and the USA, say that their research provides evidence that life’s raw materials came from sources beyond the Earth. They have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, in a paper published on 15 June 2008. The finding suggests that parts of the raw materials to make the first molecules of DNA and RNA may have come from the stars.

Lead author Dr Zita Martins, of the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, says that the research may provide another piece of evidence explaining the evolution of early life. She says:

“We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoritic fragments for use in genetic coding which enabled them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations.”

Very interesting story, IMO. Definitely worth looking at a more in depth look at the study here.