Comets Spurred Life On Earth By Helping Create Key Molecules, New Research Suggests

By: Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer Published: 06/08/2013 08:43 AM EDT on LiveScience The impact of comets crashing into Earth's surface may have provided the energy to create simple molecules that formed the precursors to life, a new study suggests. That conclusion, published in the June 20 issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, was based on a computer model of such an impact's effect on a comet crystal initially made up of water, carbon dioxide and other simple molecules. "Comets carry very simple molecules in them," said study co-author Nir Goldman, a physical chemist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. "When a comet hits a planetary surface, for example, that...