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Comets and the formation of biochemical compounds on the primitive earth - A reviewThirty years ago it was suggested that comets impacting on the primitive earth may have represented a significant source of terrestrial volatiles, including some important precursors for prebiotic synthesis (Oro, 1961). This possibility is strongly supported not only by models of the collisional history of the early earth, but also by astronomical evidence that suggests that frequent collisions of cometlike bodies from the circumstellar disk around the star Beta Pictoris are taking place. Although a significant fraction of the complex organic compounds that appear to be present in cometary nuclei were probably destroyed during impact, it is argued that cometary collisions with the primitive earth represented an important source of both free-energy and volatiles, and may have created transient, gaseous environments in which prebiotic synthesis may have taken place.
Document ID
19930033980
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Oro, J.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Mills, T.
(Houston Univ. TX, United States)
Lazcano, A.
(Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Coyoacan, United States)
Date Acquired
August 15, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1992
Publication Information
Publication: Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere
Volume: 21
Issue: 6-May
ISSN: 0169-6149
Subject Category
Space Biology
Accession Number
93A17977
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NGR-44-005-002
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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