Updated January 25, 2020, 10:54 p.m.
No living thing on earth can do without the element phosphorus. The substance is rare in the universe and was not yet available when our planet was created. Astronomers have now identified a possible way of how it came to Earth.
Phosphorus is an important building block of DNA. It is necessary for the construction of the cell walls and plays an essential role in the energy metabolism of living things. Without the element would be on ours planet no life emerged. However, according to scientists, the boulder that was the earth when our solar system was created did not contain any phosphorus. The fabric was only later carried to our planet.
Phosphorus is very rare in the universe. For this reason, researchers have long puzzled over how the element came to earth. A team of scientists from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the European Space Agency (ESA) published in the latest issue of “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society“published a theory about it.
Accordingly, phosphorus-containing molecules are formed when new stars are born. This is shown by observations of a star formation region 7,000 light years away, which they were able to carry out with the help of the radio telescope ALMA.
Rosetta’s mission provides clues to the path of phosphorus
But how do such phosphorus compounds come to earth? Findings from the Rosetta mission provide a possible answer. With the ESA probe was astronomer successfully landed on a comet for the first time. On the comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, also called “Tschuri”, the astrophysicists found, among other things, phosphorus-containing molecules.
For the current study, the research team subjected the data from the Rosetta mission to a closer examination and was able to confirm that Tschuri contains phosphorus monoxide – precisely the phosphorus compound that is generated when stars form.
The dust that surrounds growing stars clumps together to form larger grains, stones and finally comets like Churi. These can include the phosphorus monoxide that is created when a star is born. The scientists conclude from this that comets may have carried such phosphorus compounds to Earth.
Did comets bring other building blocks of life?
Hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen are the best known foundations of life. However, other building blocks such as phosphorus are essential for the formation of the organisms that occur on earth.
Scientists believe it is likely that other key ingredients for comet life have rained down on Earth. As early as 2016, astronomers were able to detect the amino acid glycerol on Tschuri.
It was only in November that a Japanese research group discovered the sugar molecule ribose in a meteorite that struck Australia in 1969. The connection is an essential part of our DNS. Scientists from Tohoku University in Sendai have been able to demonstrate that the Ribose of extraterrestrial origin and not just on Earth,
Sources used:
- “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society”: “ALMA and ROSINA detections of phosphorus-bearing molecules: the interstellar thread between star-forming regions and comets”
- European Southern Observatory press release: “Astronomers Reveal Interstellar Thread of One of Life’s Building Blocks”
- ESA: “Mapping the cosmic journey of phosphorus with Rosetta and ALMA”
- ESA: “Rosetta’s comet contains ingredients for life”
- NASA: “NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical”
- Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture “Phosphorus, all just a question of availability”
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