Meteors can bring life first to Earth

London's Natural History Museum exhibits the Ivuna comet debris dating back 4.6 billion years, probably bringing the foundational elements to the first life on Earth.

Meteors can be the origin of life on Earth

According to The Guardian, today is the first time this rare meteorite has been exhibited in public. The Ivuna meteorite fell to Tanzania in 1938, broken into pieces and mostly acquired by private collectors.

In 2008, London's Natural History Museum acquired the largest piece from an American collector. It's about the size of a tangerine, black, dating back to the time of the birth of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago, while our Earth was about 4.5 billion years old.

The meteorite is preserved in pure nitrogen.(Photo: NHM London).

It is one of the only five rock formations in the world that contain chemical compounds such as hydrogen and helium , similar to the Sun's structure, which are classified as carbonate chondrite meteorites - the most primitive meteorite group that accounts for 4 , 6% of meteorite groups fell to Earth.

Carbonate chondrite meteorite contains a lot of water molecules that are "locked up" , one-fifth of its weight is water, along with other organic compounds that are thought to be the basic elements that place "bricks for life".

Scientists believe that comets such as Ivuna may have brought water and important compounds to form the Earth's life, when it hit the fledgling earth surface billions of years ago.

"Those meteorite pieces are the most important vestiges of environmental conditions that existed more than 4.5 billion years ago, before the Earth was formed. They are primitive bricks built up in the solar system."

When carbonate chondrite falls on Earth, they will slowly decay in the air. However, the specimen from Ivuna Comet is preserved in pure nitrogen environment to preserve its origin.

Researchers at the London Museum of Natural History believe that studying meteorite samples will help them learn more about the composition of the Sun, compared to surface measurement.

A piece of desert glass Lybyan, in fact sand is deformed by extreme heat and pressure when meteorites fall to the ground.(Photo: NHM London).

Sara Russel, the head of the museum's mineral and planetary science department, said they studied the Ivuna meteorite to learn about the recent statement that the European Space Agency's XMN-Newton Space Telescope detecting dark matter in a cluster of galaxies away from Earth.

"By studying the solar system, we can know what's going on in distant galaxies. At the Natural History Museum, we use meteorites like Ivuna - there are words before the onions. In the solar system formed, to understand the primitive material elements of that time, " Russell said.

In addition, scientists say, "It is great to be allowed to admire the unique artifacts that are older than Earth". The museum will be open for free to visitors.