The International Space Station (ISS) continues their research to expand human understanding of the universe. A new study conducted about 400 kilometers above Earth, the astronauts sought to understand how life on Earth began and whether alien microorganisms would have survived space travel that then led to the origin of life on Earth. The theory used to perform the same is called panspermia.
In a research paper yet to be published, astronauts at the ISS shed light on the fact that early life forms could have survived space travel; in support of a theory that life on Earth originated when microorganisms or chemical precursors of life piggybacked interplanetary rides here on dust particles or micrometeorites.
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To put the same thing together, astronauts exposed different types of amino acids to the outer space of the station to see how they coped with the harsh environment. They concluded by suggesting that complex amino acids may have been more robust than simple precursors during transport to primitive Earth and could have survived space travel, such as reported by India Today.
Why did the astronauts release amino acids?
Amino acids are one of the first organic molecules to appear on Earth. As building blocks of proteins, amino acids are linked to almost every life process, but they also play a key role as precursor compounds in many physiological processes. In layman’s terms, life on Earth began due to the presence of amino acids. The entire study was based on the concept of panspermia, which suggests that life on Earth originated from meteors.