Recall that a meteorite fell in Michigan in January 2018. The extraterrestrial body was discovered just two days later.
However, only recently, when studying itIt was discovered that it contains rich reserves of extraterrestrial organic compounds. Substances of this kind most likely fell on the early Earth along with meteorites and may have contributed to the creation of life
We are often asked whether meteorites contain traceslife. Often they actually meet there, only this life is always of earthly origin. As soon as a fragment of a celestial body falls to Earth, it is immediately colonized by bacteria or lichens. In this case, we were lucky: the meteorite fell on a frozen lake and was found quickly enough, and it did not have time to become heavily contaminated.
Philipp Heck, one of the study's authors and an associate professor at the University of Chicago in the USA,
After scientists examined the collected almost12 fragments of a meteorite, they found out that the space object is a type H4 chondrite - a very rare type of celestial body. Previously, such compounds were not found in such chondrites.
Heck and his colleagues intend to further investigate the following findings. They hope this will help determine how and when the first organic molecules came to Earth.
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