科學(xué)家稱，彗星可能為地球帶來了“生命的基本元素”

科學(xué)家稱，彗星可能為地球帶來了“生命的基本元素”

A new study suggests that comets had a huge hand in helping life form on Earth, bringing integral elements such as phosphorus, “an essential element for life,” to the planet.

一項(xiàng)新的研究表明，彗星在幫助地球上的生命形成方面發(fā)揮了巨大的作用，為地球帶來了不可或缺的元素，如磷，“生命的基本元素”。

The research utilized the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescopes in Chile, as well as the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, to look at the AFGL 1542 star-forming region. They found molecules such as phosphorus monoxide.

這項(xiàng)研究利用智利的阿塔卡馬大型毫米/亞毫米陣列(ALMA)望遠(yuǎn)鏡以及歐洲航天局的羅塞塔(Rosetta)航天器來觀測(cè)AFGL 1542恒星形成區(qū)。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一氧化二磷等分子。

“Life appeared on Earth about 4 billion years ago, but we still do not know the processes that made it possible,” says Víctor Rivilla, the lead author of the study, in a statement.

這項(xiàng)研究的主要作者維克多·里維拉在一份聲明中說:“大約40億年前，地球上出現(xiàn)了生命，但我們?nèi)匀徊恢朗鞘裁催^程使它成為可能。”

In AFGL 1542, stars are created from enormous clouds comprised of gas and dust, as well as the building blocks of life, notably phosphorus. Phosphorus molecules are created as these stars are born and they release radiation, with the molecules traveling through space.

在1542年的AFGL中，恒星是由巨大的云組成的，這些云由氣體和塵埃組成，同時(shí)也是生命的基石，尤其是磷。磷分子是在這些恒星誕生時(shí)產(chǎn)生的，它們釋放輻射，分子在太空中穿行。

After observing AFGL 1542, researchers looked at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko using the Rosetta spacecraft in the Solar System to see if the phosphorus molecules were present — and they were.

在觀測(cè)了AFGL 1542之后，研究人員使用太陽系的羅塞塔飛船觀察了67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko彗星，看看磷分子是否存在——它們確實(shí)存在。

Kathrin Altwegg, an author on the study, said she was clued into finding the phosphorus molecules after she was approached by another astronomer who looked at star-forming regions with ALMA. “She said that phosphorus monoxide would be a very likely candidate, so I went back to our data and there it was!”

這項(xiàng)研究的作者之一凱瑟琳?阿爾特韋格(Kathrin Altwegg)說，另一位與阿爾瑪一起研究恒星形成區(qū)域的天文學(xué)家找到她，讓她有了發(fā)現(xiàn)磷分子的線索。“她說一氧化二磷是一個(gè)非常有可能的候選者，所以我回到我們的數(shù)據(jù)，它就在那里!”

“Since comets may have delivered a significant amount of prebiotic material to the early Earth, this finding suggests that [phosphorus] could contribute significantly to the phosphorus reservoir during the dawn of our planet,” the researchers wrote in the study’s abstract.

研究人員在研究摘要中寫道:“由于彗星可能向地球早期輸送了大量的生命起源前物質(zhì)，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)表明，(磷)可能在我們星球的黎明時(shí)期為磷的儲(chǔ)存做出了重大貢獻(xiàn)。”

“There is evidence that [phosphorus] was already in the cometary ices prior to the birth of the Sun, so the chemical budget of the comet might be inherited from the natal environment of the Solar System, which is thought to be a stellar cluster including also massive stars.”

“有證據(jù)表明，在太陽誕生之前，(磷)就已經(jīng)存在于彗星的冰中了，所以彗星的化學(xué)成分可能是從太陽系的誕生環(huán)境中繼承下來的，而太陽系是一個(gè)恒星群，包括大質(zhì)量恒星。”

Researchers had previously detected phosphorus in a haze around the comet but were not certain how it got there.

研究人員此前曾在彗星周圍的薄霧中檢測(cè)到磷，但不確定它是如何到達(dá)那里的。

As not all of the phosphorus molecules are used to make stars, the leftovers can become asteroids and comets and bring life, an idea known as panspermia.

由于并不是所有的磷分子都被用來制造恒星，剩下的磷分子可以變成小行星和彗星并帶來生命，這就是所謂的生源說。

Panspermia is the hypothesis that life on Earth originated from microorganisms in outer space that were carried here unintentionally by objects such as space dust, meteoroids and asteroids, according to an article on NASA’s website.

根據(jù)美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局網(wǎng)站上的一篇文章，“生源說”是一種假說，認(rèn)為地球上的生命起源于外層空間的微生物，這些微生物是由太空塵埃、流星體和小行星等物體無意中帶到地球上的。

“Phosphorus is essential for life as we know it,” Altwegg added.

“正如我們所知，磷是生命所必需的。”Altwegg補(bǔ)充道。