Scientists are gradually unraveling the cornerstone of life by rediscovering what may have happened on Earth millions of years ago. Now, a new study by researchers at Yale and the University of Leeds suggests that lightning strikes could provide the spark of life by dissolving the phosphorus needed to create biomolecules that would the foundation of life on Earth, according to a university press release.
Although science has a vague understanding of how life came to be on our planet, there are some things that do not add up due to lack of knowledge, and how life on Earth began is still one of the deepest mysteries in science. For example, we know that the earliest signs of life undoubtedly appeared 3.5 billion years ago, but there is a problem with that because the right ingredients were not yet in life.
To achieve life on Earth, a detailed cocktail of essential nutrients is required, and phosphorus is one of those ingredients, which plays a key role in all life processes from transition to reproduction. However, in those times, phosphorus was trapped within minerals on early Earth.
Releasing usable phosphorus
The team of researchers questioned how the Earth’s phosphorus enters a form that can be used to help create life-critical biomolecules. As described in the study published in Nature Communication, a lightning strike could have liberated phosphorus, leading to the formation of the substance needed for life.
Because meteorites contain phosphorus mineral schreibersite, the researchers first studied them. If meteorites hit the Earth’s surface with enough frequency, this could explain a lot. However, the frequency of impacts during the early days of the Earth was found to be underestimated.
However, this was not the only place where schreibersite was present, as it was removed by a team of outstanding researchers in 2009. Schreibersite is found in fulgurites – glass veins of molten sand, soil or rock. which forms when lightning strikes the earth.
To test this idea, the team led by Benjamin Hess, a graduate student in Yale ‘s Department of Earth Sciences & Planning, used computer modeling. They estimated that there were many more lightning strikes on Earth than we do now. While today we see around 560 million flashes per year, the ancient Earth would see 1-5 billion flashes. Of those, between 100 million and 1 billion would go on strike.
The researchers say that, over a billion-year period, a quintillion of electricity could have hit the ground and helped release usable phosphorus.
“Unlike the highly destructive effects of meteorite, lightning strikes would provide a non-destructive, continuous source of reactive phosphorus that would not inhibit the fine-grained evolutionary measures required for complex prebiotic synthesis,” the authors wrote.
Understanding how life came to be on Earth and the role of lightning as a viable form of phosphorus can have a profound effect
“Our findings seem to apply to any planet that has an atmosphere that generates lightning. As long as there is enough lightning of a planet, there would be a source of phosphorus needed for life to manifest,” Hess explained. .