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Could a Comet Construct Life on Earth?

on September 18, 2010

LLNL: “Amino acids could be produced within impacting comets, bringing life to earthCould the destructive impact of a comet construct life on earth?

Seeking a natural explanation for life on the earth, evolutionists have proposed a “big bang” model of abiogenesis. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) suggest that comets colliding into the earth may have created amino acids, the building blocks of life.

Even if amino acids could survive such a catastrophic collision, life requires far more than amino acids.

Nir Goldman and the LLNL team report in Nature Chemistry that comets may have started life on the earth. From around 1–35 miles wide, comets contain simple molecules like water, ammonia, methylene, and carbon dioxide. Upon a comet’s impact with the earth, those molecules undergo extreme compression and heating, but lower temperatures in a “glancing blow.” Such conditions could have resulted in complexes resembling glycine, an amino acid, according to their simulations.

Thus, the researchers suggest life came from extraterrestrial sources—not aliens, but comets. “There’s a possibility that the production or delivery of prebiotic molecules came from extraterrestrial sources,” Goldman said.

Goldman and team used molecular dynamic simulations to theorize how amino acids could possibly survive and synthesize inside a comet during shock compression. “Once the compressed material expands, stable amino acids could survive interactions with the planet’s atmosphere or ocean,” Goldman said.

The idea of comets bringing life to earth is not new. Last year, News to Note covered a similar claim. Even if amino acids could survive such a catastrophic collision, life requires far more than amino acids. And of course there is still no satisfactory naturalistic explanation of how matter came to be in the first place. Among those who reject the creation record, theorists hold various beliefs about the origin of life, but the Originator of life claims He alone created the universe for life.






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