Privileged Planet: source of volatile elements (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, January 29, 2023, 19:43 (665 days ago) @ David Turell

Beyond Jupiter:

https://phys.org/news/2023-01-meteorites-reveal-earth-volatile-chemicals.html

"Meteorites have told Imperial researchers the likely far-flung origin of Earth's volatile chemicals, some of which form the building blocks of life.

"They found that around half the Earth's inventory of the volatile element zinc came from asteroids originating in the outer solar system—the part beyond the asteroid belt that includes the planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. This material is also expected to have supplied other important volatiles such as water.

"Volatiles are elements or compounds that change from solid or liquid state into vapor at relatively low temperatures. They include the six most common elements found in living organisms, as well as water. As such, the addition of this material will have been important for the emergence of life on Earth.

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"To carry out the study, the researchers examined 18 meteorites of varying origins—eleven from the inner solar system, known as non-carbonaceous meteorites, and seven from the outer solar system, known as carbonaceous meteorites.

"For each meteorite they measured the relative abundances of the five different forms—or isotopes—of zinc. They then compared each isotopic fingerprint with Earth samples to estimate how much each of these materials contributed to the Earth's zinc inventory. The results suggest that while the Earth only incorporated about ten percent of its mass from carbonaceous bodies, this material supplied about half of Earth's zinc.

"The researchers say that material with a high concentration of zinc and other volatile constituents is also likely to be relatively abundant in water, giving clues about the origin of Earth's water.

"First author on the paper Rayssa Martins, Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said, "We've long known that some carbonaceous material was added to the Earth, but our findings suggest that this material played a key role in establishing our budget of volatile elements, some of which are essential for life to flourish.'"

Comment: either contingent forces brought all the materials we need or it was designed.