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All life (as we know it) depends on carbon. But most models of Earth's formation can't explain how the crust has enough carbon to support life. So where did it all come from?
A colossal smashup with a Mercury-like protoplanet some 4.4 billion years ago, suggest researchers from Rice University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Most scientists agree that about 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was covered with hot magma, and as it cooled, most of the heavier metals near the surface sank deep into the planet. Iron alloys bonded with carbon and sulfur, pulling both into the Earth's core, and any remaining carbon would have vaporized into space from the extreme heat, argue the scientists. The only way to keep carbon and sulfur near the surface is to bring some from a planet that formed differently, they say.
A different story reported last week that scientists have identified fossilized stromatolites that date to 3.7 billion years ago, or 700 million years after the worst day ever for the young Earth.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday September 09 2016, @08:35AM
On the plus side, that means the galaxy is mine. Mine! MINE! Muahha ... uh, I mean... ours. Perhaps in a few million years the galaxy will look something like it does in the Foundation series.
It would be a shame not to meet any aliens, but on the other hand it would be nice to have a more comforting answer to the Fermi Paradox than "You are doomed to destroy yourselves".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @02:01PM
Fermi said that? I thought it came from the writers of "Planet of the Apes".
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday September 09 2016, @03:13PM
Fermi said "where the hell is everyone?" There are numerous possible answers to that question [wikipedia.org], one of them being that intelligent, technological civilisations have a strong tendency to quickly destroy themselves / destroy one-another / go extinct by other means.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday September 10 2016, @04:23AM
I believe the latest theory is that we just happen to be ahead of everyone else.
http://www.iflscience.com/space/earth-may-have-formed-earlier-92-other-habitable-planets/ [iflscience.com]
http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/2728-most-earth-like-worlds-have-yet-to-be-born [ras.org.uk]
The pendulum of prediction seems to be swinging the other way, based on some Hubble observations.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.