Watch The Video Here: one of the key ingredients needed for life is phosphorous and the multitude of lightning strikes that happened when the earth was 4 billion years old may have unlocked the necessary amount of phosphorous to create the foundation of life itself, but when life on the earth began 3.5-4.5 billion years ago fewer meteorites were impacting the earth, fulgurite is the glass that is formed when lightning strikes the ground, the dept of earth and planetary sciences states. on the earth, could have resulted in 1 quintillion lighting strikes and a whole lot of phosphorus thereby kick-starting life,, long been thought that meteorites crashing into the earth have been known to contain schreibersite a phosphorus mineral that can dissolve in water, with enough of these crashes it could mean just the right amount of phosphorus to kickstart life, but when life on the earth began 3.5-4.5 billion years ago fewer meteorites were impacting the earth, fulgurite is the glass that is formed when lightning strikes the ground, Fulgurite has been found to contain phosphorus released from surface rocks and this phosphorus is soluble.
lighting does not diminish through time as it is formed on the earth itself whereas the meteors do diminish being that it stands as a rare occurrence when one big enough and rich enough in just the right minerals crashes on the earth, this is also the primary consideration for life forming on Earth-like planets when meteor impacts become rare, The study stated that on the earth today we experience about 560million lightning flashes per year and on earth, earlier that number was about 1-5 billion with a 100million to 1 billion striking the ground, over a billion years of this could have resulted in 1 quintillion lighting strikes and a whole lot of phosphorus thereby kick-starting life, early earth had more c02 and thereby the atmosphere was warming as co2 contributes to global temperatures, higher temp means more frequent and intense thunderstorms, a significant rise in co2 levels is said to have been when a Mars-sized object crashed into the earth and creating the moon as an aftereffect of the impact some 4.5 billion years ago, this impact also released a lot of co2 from inside the earth's surface which became trapped in the atmosphere of the earth and led to more lightning, The study also stated that Understanding the role of lightning strikes as a way of creating usable phosphorous has implications in the search for life beyond Earth.
"Our findings are likely applicable to any planet which has an atmosphere that generates lightning. So long as a planet has a significant amount of lightning, it would have a source of phosphorus needed for the emergence of life," Hess said. Phosphorus is needed in the molecules that form the basic cell structures, cell membranes and even makes up the phosphate backbone of DNA, RNA a study from the yale university dept of earth and planetary sciences states.on the earth, could have resulted in 1 quintillion lighting strikes and a whole lot of phosphorus thereby kick-starting life,,
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