Could Solar Storms Explain How Life on Earth Arose?

While modern civilisations may seem impressively sophisticated, getting to this stage has been a long time in the making. It took around 700 million years for life to flourish on Earth after its surface had cooled and solidified, and scientists still aren’t certain exactly how it happened. However, one thing is for sure – the materialisation of life required water.

Following new research published in Nature Geoscience, scientists are maintaining that the sun played a key role in kick-starting life on Earth, and ensuring water was able to exist within its atmosphere. While its involvement isn’t a new theory, the team has shaken up the ‘faint young sun paradox’ model and is suggesting that in the past, the sun was far more active than it is today.

Sun cited as key player

Using data from the exoplanet-hunting mission Kepler, they’re suggesting that the during its younger life, the sun would’ve regularly lit up with violent solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME). This may have caused energetic particles to penetrate the Earth’s protective magnetic field, which would’ve have triggered a fireworks show of chemical reactions.  

If the atmosphere was still dominated by nitrogen at this stage, the influx of solar energetic particles would’ve forced singular unreactive nitrogen molecules into a pair of highly reactive nitrogen atoms. This would then react with molecular counterparts within the atmosphere, including water (H2O), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3).

A chemical cocktail of life

For many of these reactions, the end result is the creation of hydrogen cycanide (HCN) and nitrous oxide (N2O). The first is an all-important precursor molecule needed to form amino acids, while the second is a powerful greenhouse gas that supports the existence of liquid water. Together, their presence explains how Earth was simultaneously able to maintain its temperature, while producing the biologically-significant feedstock needed to support the development of life.

As well as playing a major role in revving up life on Earth, N2O is also the oxidant of choice for powering most flame AA systems. ‘Money To Burn: Do you Know What is Costs to Run your Atomic Spectroscopy instrumentation?’ calls on readers to consider the overheads associated with laboratory equipment, with a focus on gases, electricity and consumables. It draws on data from a host of leading commercial sources, including suppliers of industrial and high-purity gases, independent utilities companies, a number ICP-MS instrument vendors and sample introduction/consumable suppliers.