What if huge solar storms caused life to arise?

By directing charged particles found in the solar wind to a mixture of gases present in Earth’s early atmosphere, the researchers found that the combined components could form large amounts of amino acids and carboxylic acids. Could huge solar flares from our young, hyperactive Sun give life the little “boost” it needed billions of years ago? Study details have been published in Life Magazine.

How do you move from non-living to living?

This question, which is one of the great mysteries of humanity, has generated intense interest and many questions for centuries. In ancient times, civilizations preferred mythological or religious explanations before the arrival of science and the experiments that accompanied it.

One of the most famous, known asMiller-Urey experimentIt was done in the 1950s, and for this work, chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey created a laboratory environment that mimicked atmospheric conditions thought to have existed on early Earth, including the presence of gases such as methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water vapor. These gases were subjected to an electric discharge to simulate lightning. The latter was considered a source of energy in the environment at that time.

Over the days, the experiment then produced a variety of complex organic compounds. some were Amino acidsthe building blocks of proteins that are essential to life as we know it.

However, in the years that followed, everything got a little more complicated. Researchers have already discovered that Earth’s early atmosphere was actually filled with less ammonia and methane than expected. On the other hand, there was more carbon dioxide and molecular nitrogen present than expected. However, these are the last two gases require a lot of energy To degrade what lightning alone can provide. Which brings us back to this new study.

As part of this work, a team from Yokohama National University in Japan explored the idea of ​​this Cosmic rays from very active solar flares It would have provided the necessary impetus for life on Earth.

What are solar storms?

Like other stars, the Sun is electrically charged and consists of hot plasma whose motions generate intense magnetic fields. The regions of the Sun where these magnetic field lines are particularly concentrated and intertwine are called “active regions”. These are often associated with the presence of sunspots. Here, magnetic domains can become unstable due to different forces and interactions. If that was the case, they could release a huge amount of energy.

As a result, huge amounts of charged particles and radiation pass through space. And occasionally, some cross the path of the Earth. Then this substance collides with the Earth’s magnetic field and excites particles in the atmosphere.

An incredible source of energy

However, it is estimated that supernovae generally only erupt once every hundred years or so. However, this may not always be the case. We know that for the first 100 million years of the Earth’s life, this type of event occurred every three to ten days, each time releasing huge amounts of energy. Imagine the equivalent million atomic bombs.

So the idea that these solar flares could be involved in the emergence of life seems perfectly plausible. However, until now most scientists have ignored this hypothesis because testing it requires specialized equipment, such as particle accelerators. Here, the researchers were lucky to get access to several of them near their facilities.

To determine the role these giant storms might have played in the emergence of life, the researchers incorporated carbon dioxide, molecular nitrogen, water, and varying amounts of methane into gas mixtures they might expect to find in our primordial atmosphere. And by dropping these mixtures of gases with protons from a small particle accelerator, they then It causes the production of amino acids. They also produced carboxylic acids which are also essential to life.

During the experiment, the researchers also subjected these mixtures of gases to simulate lightning. Under these conditions, amino and carboxylic acids are also formed. but, The production rate was approx A million times less than protons. Of course, this does not mean that lightning did not play a role in igniting life. However, it seems that the “whims” of our star could be A more specific factor.