New research indicates that phosphorus, a mineral essential for human DNA, appeared on Earth about four billion years ago. Astronomers have proven for the first time that his 'journey' began billions of light-years from our planet.
To obtain new results, scientists used data from a huge telescope in Chile, ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array), as well as information received from the European Space Agency (ESA) during the Rosetta mission.
It turned out that the accumulations of gas and dust between the stars moved to our planet at the very moment when life is believed to have originated on it. Here is what the author of a new study published in the Daily Star, Ph.D. Victor Rivilla, who works at the Italian Institute of Astrophysics, writes:
'Life appeared on Earth about four billion years ago, but we still don't know what processes made this possible. However, our discovery allows us to somewhat lift the veil of this mystery. Phosphorus is even present in our own body. It forms a chemical phosphate that is critical for cell membranes, muscles and even nerves. '
Experts found parts of this substance on comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Using ALMA, an international team of scientists could pinpoint exactly where the phosphorus-containing molecules were found.
Understanding our cosmic origins, including how common chemical conditions are conducive to the emergence of life, is a major topic of modern astrophysics.
The researchers are confident that such observations speak in favor of the fact that it was comets that delivered large quantities of organic compounds to Earth. At least this is what the phosphorus monoxide found in comet 67P confirms. The combination of ALMA and ROSINA data (the instrument mounted on the probe) revealed a kind of chemical filament during the entire process of star formation, in which phosphorus monoxide plays a dominant role.
