Notorio, Isaac Nicholas N.

August 4, 2013
College of Science/BS Chemistry Report Paper
2013-25581 Eng 10 THR3
Comets: Starters of Life on Earth
As you look deeper into the sky, you can see a lot of bright heavenly bodies. Aside from the stars that
seem fixed, there are also moving celestial bodies that amaze us and one of those bodies is the comet.
Comets are bodies containing ice that forms a tail as they approach a hot body like the sun or a star. Well-
known comets include the Halleys Comet which was last seen in 1986 and was expected to return after 75-76
years and Comet Hale-Bopp sighted in 1997 and will return after 2000 years (Comet Hale-Bopp; Halleys
Comet).
Comets contain water in solid form and because water is essential to life, comets are possible
initiators of life on Earth. Aside from water, organic compounds are also present as well as ammonia, carbon
dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane (Choi, Comets: Formation). Ultraviolet radiation in space is
responsible for the synthesis of these organic compounds making it possible for their presence in outer space
(Lemonick). The theory that life on Earth was brought by comets is one of the theories telling how life on
Earth began. There is a theory that electricity from lightning reacted with compounds present in the
atmosphere to form amino acids and sugars; another says that deep-sea vents are the first sites of life because
it ejects hydrogen-rich molecules (Choi, 7 Theories) and also, the theory that life came spontaneously from
non-living matter present on Earth.
How did these compounds reach the Earth? Earth during its early days was still bombarded by
asteroids and comets. This could have brought large amounts of water and organic compounds enough to
support the appearance of life. But during a comets impact on Earth a huge amount of heat was produced
and it might have destroyed the molecules. So, the lead author of the study, Nir Goldman of the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory and his co-author, Isaac Tamblyn studied and found out that organic
molecules would be destroyed if the collision of the comet was at straight angles but at shallower angles,
impacts would have generated lower temperatures and the organic material would have been changed by heat
and pressure into more complex ones (Lemonick).
In an experiment, Seol Kim and Ralf Kaiser of the University of Hawaii showed how these
compounds are formed under space conditions. Using a vacuum chamber at 10 Kelvin, they simulated a
snowball in space composed of carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrocarbons and when it was shot with
electrons, it produced complex organic compounds. While at the University of California, Berkeley, Richard
Mathies and Amanda Stockton using Mathies Mars Organic Analyzer to detect organic molecules in the solar
system found nine amino acids and two dipeptides which are capable of creating life on Earth (Sanders). In
an another experiment, Jennifer G. Blank, PhD. and her colleagues at the Bay Area Environmental Research
Institute NASA/Ames Research Center checked if the amino acids will remain after passing the Earths
atmosphere. They used gas guns to shot with high-pressure gas capsules containing amino acids, water, and
other compounds. The amino acids were not destroyed, instead, peptide bonds were formed that bonded
amino acids to form proteins (American Chemical Society).
These experiments suggest that the molecules that formed each organisms structure was formed in
outer space and even though Earth was still a harsh place at that time, it now became the only place in the
solar system where there is life. The collisions of comets are not the only process involved in starting life on
Earth, however, they have a major role because they might have transported large amounts of materials
needed for life to evolve. These large amounts may have become the organisms inhabiting the planet that
took billions of years to achieve its present state.





Works Cited
American Chemical Society (ACS). "New evidence that comets deposited building blocks of life on
primordial Earth." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 Mar. 2012. Web. 31 Jul. 2013.
Choi, Charles Q. 7 Theories on the Origin of Life. LiveScience. TechMediaNetwork, Inc., 22 Mar. 2011.
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Comet Hale-Bopp. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Jul. 2013. Web. 31 Jul. 2013.
Halleys Comet. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Jul. 2013. Web. 31 Jul. 2013.
Lemonick, Michael. How an Exploding Comet Might Have Forged Life on Earth. The New Yorker. Cond
Nast, 10 Jun. 2013. Web. 31 Jul. 2013
Sanders, Robert. Evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth. UC Berkeley NewsCenter. UC
Berkeley, 5 Mar. 2013. Web. 31 Jul. 2013.