A new study conducted by NASA researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has successfully recreated the origins of life that might have existed at least 4 billion years ago. Experts who took part in the study believe that the findings of this experiment could reshape human understanding regarding the formation of life on the planet, and it may also help to locate life in other nooks of the universe.
The study report published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that scientists recreated 4 billion-year-old ocean floors, and they tried to figure out how life initially nourished in hydrothermal vents of ocean floors.
"Understanding how far you can go with just organics and minerals before you have an actual cell is really important for understanding what types of environments life could emerge from. Also, investigating how things like the atmosphere, the ocean and the minerals in the vents all impact this can help you understand how likely this is to have occurred on another planet," said Laurie Barge, the lead author of the study in a recent statement.
In the research report, scientists also revealed that these hydrothermal vents could be present elsewhere in the universe, and life might be thriving on these alien space bodies.
"We don't have concrete evidence of life elsewhere yet. But understanding the conditions that are required for life's origin can help narrow down the places that we think life could exist," added Barge.
The research report comes at a crucial time where several celestial bodies are getting discovered, with many of them loaded with organic molecules.
A few months back, using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, researchers discovered building blocks of life on Saturn's moon Enceladus. After making the milestone discovery, Frank Postberg, the lead author of the study revealed that it is the first ever detection of complex organic molecules in an extraterrestrial water world.
