Comets and the Origin and Evolution of Life

Oró, J.; Lazcano, Antonio; Ehrenfreund, P.

doi:10.1007/3-540-33088-7_1

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 145 publications

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“…Accretion of extraterrestrial matter has long been of interest as a source of pre-biotic organic carbon for the origin of life on Earth (Oró, 1961;Sagan, 1974;Lewis et al, 1979;Anders, 1989;Pepin, 1991;Huebner and Boice, 1992;Delsemme, 1992;Chyba andSagan, 1992, 1998;Oberbeck and Aggarwal, 1993;Chang 1993, Whittet, 1997Oró and Lazcano, 1998). Most organic carbon is thought to be accreted by impacts of comets and primitive asteroids (Oró, 1961;Chyba et al, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Jenniskens

Wilson

Packan

et al. 1998

Earth, Moon, and Planets

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All potential exogenous pre-biotic matter arrived to Earth by ways of our atmosphere, where much material was ablated during a luminous phase called "meteors" in rarefied flows of high (up to 270) Mach number. The recent Leonid showers offered a first glimpse into the elusive physical conditions of the ablation process and atmospheric chemistry associated with high-speed meteors. Molecular emissions were detected that trace a meteor's brilliant light to a 4,300 K warm wake rather than to the meteor's head. A new theoretical approach using the direct simulation by Monte Carlo technique identified the source-region and demonstrated that the ablation process is critical in the heating of the meteor's wake. In the head of the meteor, organic carbon appears to survive flash heating and rapid cooling. The temperatures in the wake of the meteor are just right for dissociation of CO and the formation of more complex organic compounds. The resulting materials could account for the bulk of pre-biotic organic carbon on the early Earth at the time of the origin of life.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Jenniskens

Wilson

Packan

et al. 1998

Earth, Moon, and Planets

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“…Actually, the main scientific goals of Rosetta are to investigate both the origin of comets and the relationship between cometary and interstellar material. These results could be of crucial importance to obtain additional information about the origin of the Solar System and, more important, of life on Earth [3].…”

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confidence: 89%

Electric sail option for cometary rendezvous

2016

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“…For this reason, contemporary researchers still regard deposition of extraterrestrial Aib in the K/Pg boundary clay layer as a mere possibility rather than a certainty (Kring and Durda, 2002). This perspective might be different if the K/Pg impactor was a comet rather than a carbonaceous chondritic asteroid Chyba, 1999, 2006;Oró et al, 2006;Martins et al, 2013), but, again, this neither appears to be the case nor guarantees that amino acids survived the K/Pg impact. Pierazzo and Melosh (2000) simulated the Chicxulub impact under a variety of conditions and calculated that the minimum shock pressure experienced by both leading and trailing particles in the impactor exceeded 30-35 GPa (Fig.…”

Section: Introduction E-issn 2082-0259mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for fungal proliferation following the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass-extinction event, based on chemostratigraphy in the Raton and Powder River basins, western North America

Berry¹

2020

Acta Palaeobotanica

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The presence of the amino acid α-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) within Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary clay in the Raton and Powder River basins in Colorado and Wyoming, respectively, has been described as compelling evidence that extraterrestrial Aib survived the high-energy Chicxulub impact. Based on contemporary experiments and simulations, however, it is highly unlikely that extraterrestrial Aib survived the impact, which had peak impact pressures and temperatures in excess of 600 GPa and 10,000 K, respectively. In other words, the amino acid signature of the carbonaceous chondritic asteroid that impacted Chicxulub was undoubtedly destroyed upon impact during formation of the vapor plume or so-called “fireball.” The only organisms known to produce Aib are the suite (more than 30 genera) of cosmopolitan saprotrophic filamentous fungi that include Trichoderma Pers., which has recently been hypothesized to have thrived during the K/Pg mass-extinction event. Therefore it is proposed that the Aib horizon in the K/Pg boundary clay in the Raton and Powder River basins correlates with the K/Pg boundary fungal spike, which thus far has only been observed in New Zealand (Southern Hemisphere). This proposition is based upon superimposing the Aib horizon on the well-known iridium and fern-spore spikes, as its stratigraphic position precisely matches that predicted by the fungal spike. If correct, this hypothesis alters the conventional perspective on the tempo and mode of terrestrial ecosystem recovery in western North America, as the heavily sampled K/Pg boundary section in the Raton Basin was instrumental in shaping the traditional narrative of the rapid recolonization of a denuded landscape by ferns via wind-blown spores in the immediate wake of regional deforestation caused by the K/Pg impact event. Perhaps more importantly, it could present an alternative to traditional palynological approaches for locating the fungal spike in other terrestrial K/Pg boundary sections and could provide additional support for the generalization that global mass-extinction events are frequently accompanied by fungal spikes.

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Comets and the Origin and Evolution of Life

Cited by 10 publications

References 145 publications

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Untitled

Electric sail option for cometary rendezvous

Evidence for fungal proliferation following the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass-extinction event, based on chemostratigraphy in the Raton and Powder River basins, western North America

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