Comets and life in the universe

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0273-1177(99)80067-2Get rights and content

Abstract

The notion that comets supplied the primitive Earth with the requisite chemical species for the process of chemical evolution, which is widely held to have led to the origin of life on Earth, has now gained considerable intellectual momentum since its first formulation in 1961. In fact, in the fall of 1991, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire hosted a well attended scientific meeting devoted solely to the discussion of this topic, entitled Comets and the Origins and Evolution of Life [see Special Issue of Origins of Life, P.J. Thomas (ed), vol. 21(5–6)]. As a result of the above meeting, the recently completed COSPAR/World Space Congress Symposium on Extraterrestrial Organic Chemistry and the Origins of Life, and numerous independent reports, the role of comets in the Earth's biogenesis has been thoroughly addressed in the literature. At this time, in light of a few recent findings, we present here a concise review of this topic together with a brief discussion of the possible role of cometary material in the origin of life elsewhere in the Universe.

References (49)

  • J. Oro

    Nature

    (1961)
  • J. Oro
  • J.R. Cronin

    Adv. Space Res.

    (1989)
  • J.R. Cronin, G.W. Cooper, and S. Pizzarello, this...
  • G. Cooper et al.

    Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

    (1992)
  • L.J. Allamandola et al.

    Astrophys. J. Supp. Ser.

    (1989)
  • J.R. Cronin et al.

    Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

    (1990)
  • P.R. Weissman

    Sky and Telescope

    (1993)
  • K. Zahnle et al.

    Nature

    (1990)
  • T. Owen et al.

    Nature

    (1992)
  • A.I. OparinJ.D. Bernal
  • S.L. Miller

    Science

    (1953)
  • J. Oro

    Bio. Chem. Biophys. Res. Comm.

    (1960)
  • J. Oro

    Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

    (1963)
  • L.H. Aller
  • J.H. Bieging, this...
  • P.F. Bernath, this...
  • J.R. Heath, A. Van Orden, H.J. Hwang, E. Kuo, K. Tanaka, and R.J. Saykally, this...
  • W.M. Irvine, this...
  • J. Oro et al.
  • J. Oro et al.

    Adv. Space Res.

    (1992)
  • J.R. Cronin et al.

    Adv. Space Res.

    (1983)
  • B. Basile et al.

    Organic Geochemistry

    (1984)
  • P. Swings et al.
  • Cited by (13)

    • Evolution and self-assembly of protocells

      2009, International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
    • Identification and characterization of L-arabonate dehydratase, L-2-Keto-3-deoxyarabonate dehydratase, and L-arabinolactonase involved in an alternative pathway of L-arabinose metabolism: Novel evolutionary insight into sugar metabolism

      2006, Journal of Biological Chemistry
      Citation Excerpt :

      Overall, there is significant mosaicism between the alternative l-arabinose pathway and other sugar metabolic pathways, in contrast with no evolutional relationship between the ED pathway and non-phosphorylative ED pathway. According to the so-called “patchwork” evolution model, metabolism evolved by the recruitment of relatively inefficient enzymes of broad specificity that could react with a wide range of chemically related substrates (60–62). In this regard, “evolutionary relics” seem to remain in the alternative l-arabinose pathway.

    • Early assembly of cellular life

      2003, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text