Crucial building blocks of life on Earth can more easily form in outer space – new research

By Christian Schroeder, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and Planetary Exploration, University of Stirling

The origin of life on Earth is still enigmatic, but we are slowly unravelling the steps involved and the necessary ingredients. Scientists believe life arose in a primordial soup of organic chemicals and biomolecules on the early Earth, eventually leading to actual organisms.

It’s long been suspected that some of these ingredients may have been delivered from space. Now a new study, published in Science Advances, shows that a special group of molecules, known as peptides, can form more easily under the conditions…

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