Lightning, the cause of life on earth?

Bolts from the blue may have kick-started life on earth. Lightning strikes may have supplied primordial Earth phosphorus to support the emergence of life, according to new research in Nature Communications that offered an alternative explanation as to how living organisms were born.

Hadean Eon 

4.6 to 4.0 billion years ago

* Earth coalescing

* Water

* Moon

Meteor strikes began to decline

* Core accretion

* Magnetic field 

* Late bombardment stage

Archean Era

4.6 to 2.5 billion years ago

* First oceans

* DNA

* Tectonic activity

Lightning strikes surpassed space rocks for phosphorus production, around 3.5 billion years ago

* First continent

* Prokaryote bacteria

* Banded iron formation

* Great oxygenation event

- Phosphorus from meteors declined after the Moon formed 4.5 billion years ago. Lightning became the dominant source of phosphorus a billion years later

- Phosphide produced by meteors

- Phosphide produced by lightning

- Phosphite produced by lightning

* Note. Phosphide and phosphite are compounds of phosphorus

Importance of Phosphorus

* Phosphorus is a vital building block of life as we know it, forming basic cell structures and the double helix shape of DNA and RNA

* Billions of years ago on early Earth, most of the available phosphorus was locked away in insoluble minerals

* However one mineral, schreibersite, is highly reactive and produces phosphorus capable of forming organic molecules

Schreibersite

- Since most schreibersite on Earth comes from meteorites, the emergence of life here has long been thought to be tied to the arrival of extraterrestrial rocks

- But schreibersite is also contained within the glass-like rock (fulgarites) formed by lightning strikes in clay-rich soils

- Imaging techniques were used to analyse the amount of the phosphorus-giving mineral formed in each lightning strike

11,000 kg

Researchers estimated that lightning strikes could have produced between 110 and 11,000 kg of phosphorus a year

Over a billion years, 1 quintillion lightning strikes may have hit our planet, slowly releasing some usable phosphorus

Meteor impacts around the time of the emergence of life are far less than thought a decade ago. But I don't see our work as a competition against meteorites as a source of phosphorus. The more sources, the better.......Meteor impacts decrease through time whereas lightning, at least on Earth, is relatively constant through time

- Benjamin Hess, lead study author from Yale's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said as an explanation for how the new research didn't entirely discount meteorites as another source of life-giving phosphorus

Tailpiece.

Got up at our usual time, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10. To the bank for personal work and for transferring an amount to the false ceiling contractor for the completed work in Raj Nivas. Went across to the Rajah hospital and took the vaccination after on-the-spot-registration. There was no crowd at all. BP and the Oxygen saturation levels of my blood were monitored before and after the vaccination and the certificate was handed over to me. Lekha, because she's 54 years of age, needs a certificate from her doctor for taking the vaccination says the sister on the desk. Must find out more about it tomorrow itself and tackle the issue.

Suma finished her day's work by a quarter to 7. No after effects of the Covishield vaccine till now, as I punch in this post.