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Life probably arose on Earth some 3.5 to 4 billion years ago, but all records of the momentous event have vanished—here on the Blue Marble, at least. Traces of our lost origin story might instead be buried on the Moon, according to new research published in the journal Astrobiology.
“Unlike the Earth, the Moon has been geologically quiet for billions of years, meaning there is a good chance these organic and volatile records remain relatively intact,” Richard Matthewman, the study’s lead author, told me.
Last summer, scientists concluded that escaped chunks of Earth could have brought fossil microbes to the Moon. But whether such critters could then be preserved for eons, creating a useful archive of early Earth life, remained unknown. Now we have evidence that they can. Matthewman and colleagues discovered that organic molecules can remain intact, possibly for a very long time, if they get trapped beneath ancient lunar lava flows.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-origins-of-life-could-be-buried-on-the-moon?
[Abstract]: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ast.2014.1217
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @04:31AM
Pretty sure whatever 'life' there was back then was incinerated when earch collided with the "other earth" and the chunks which floated away ended up consolidating and formed the moon. So theoretically there might be some evidence... if you drill down to its core.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday January 30 2015, @05:26AM
Pretty sure whatever 'life' there was back then was incinerated when earch collided with the "other earth" and the chunks which floated away ended up consolidating and formed the moon. So theoretically there might be some evidence... if you drill down to its core.
I thought that as well, but the more I read it, I think they may be suggesting ejecta from impacts or volcanoes on earth may have reached as far as the moon. Finding them there would seem to be a daunting task.
The best dates for the moons formation are 4.5 billion years ago. [extremetech.com]
On the other hand, the earliest life on earth is speculated as being 3.55 billion years ago [americanscientist.org], well after the moon was formed.
Maybe I got it all wrong, but that suggests they weren't talking about life that predates the moons formation.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday January 30 2015, @07:45AM
Logically impossible? Or only temporally infeasible? Or physically unlikely?
I, for one, no, wait, this is serious, am buried on the moon. Take a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_(crater) [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by sudo rm -rf on Friday January 30 2015, @10:46AM
There might be some evidence, but it may be contaminated by lifeforms that evolved since then. Here comes my obligatory [soylentnews.org] link: radiopanspermia [wikipedia.org] (although in this case it is more about Lithopanspermia, see next paragraph in wiki article)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 30 2015, @07:56PM
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday January 31 2015, @11:16AM
Pretty sure whatever 'life' there was back then was incinerated when earch collided with the "other earth"
"Pretty sure"? Oh, well, someone on the internet says they're "pretty sure" about something, that's good enough for me to dismiss a scientific paper.
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