(ORDO NEWS) — Japanese scientists have established the extraterrestrial origin of the diversity of life on Earth. Of course, this is not at all about the intervention of alien civilizations. The reason is much more prosaic – the bombardment of our planet by meteorites.
The variety of different species on Earth is a consequence of the fall of a series of meteorites on our planet. This conclusion was made by scientists from the Japanese University of Osaka. Along with fragments of large asteroids, a large amount of phosphorus hit the surface, this chemical element got into the world ocean, due to which the biological evolution and reproduction of algae occurred. The study was led by Professor Kentaro Terada.
“Our research shows that about 800 million years ago, a large amount of phosphorus came to Earth from space along with asteroids. Its content in the seas was 10 times higher than it is now. Obviously, after such an asteroid rain, the biochemical cycle of phosphorus movement on Earth has changed a lot.” – explained the professor.
In their work, scientists relied on data from the Japanese lunar satellite “Kaguya”. They managed to find out that craters on the lunar surface were formed 800 million years ago after the fall of asteroid fragments. The Earth experienced a similar “bombardment” in the same period. But if huge craters appeared on the Moon after a meteor shower, then on our planet, where the simplest forms of life already existed, the fall of fragments saturated with phosphorus had much more significant consequences.
“This phosphorus could have contributed to the development of biological activity on Earth, because bioactivity in the ocean depends on the concentration of phosphorus. And we believe that the phosphorus brought in in large quantities by asteroids during that period, activated biological activity,” said Kentaro Terada.
Japanese scientists also referred to another study led by Christopher Reinhardt in 2017. Then the Germans found that the reason for the diversity of life on Earth was a sharp increase in the amount of phosphorus in the sea, all the same 800 million years ago. True, they did not specify why such an increase occurred. Their colleagues from Japan have filled this gap.
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