Did Life on Earth Begin in an Asteroid Crater ?
Where did life on earth begin ? Charles Cockell joins us to explain why meteor and asteroid craters are a likely prospect. Charles – I’ve been working up in the high Arctic looking at an asteroid crater formed about 30 million years ago. We have been looking at is the way life re-colonised this asteroid crater. On the early Earth 3.5 billion years ago when life first emerged, asteroid and comet impacts were much more frequent -1000 times more frequent. Asteroid and comet craters were a common habitat then. Looking at how microbes can re-colonise these impact craters gives an idea about how life might have survived on early Earth Chris – Is your idea that destructive asteroids and comets could have spawned life? Charles – Yes. People think of collisions as wholly destructive. But what we’ve found up in the Arctic is that asteroids and comets can forms little cracks in the rocks by shattering them, which essentially sets up little apartment complexes in the rocks where microbes can live.
