Where life begins on earth

Hydrothermal vents and the first chemical reactions on the ocean floor are the cause of the first life on Earth.

How does life on earth begin? Three new articles co-authored Mike Russell, a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA, Pasadena and Calif, have strengthened the notion that the first life on earth started from aquifers. Alkaline heat in the ocean floor.

Hydrothermal vents are a fissure on the surface of a planet, creating water that is heated by geothermal. This phenomenon is often found near active volcanic areas, where tectonic plates are far apart, ocean depressions and hot spots.

Limestone towers are at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.(Photo: D. Kelley and M. Elend / University of Washington)

Scientists interested in the original life on earth hope to find life on another planet, especially the icy world with the ocean beneath Jupiter and Enceladus' moon surface Europa. Saturn, we need to rely on chemical signals to search, Science Daily reports.

Two articles recently published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B provide more details about the chemicals and precursors to metabolic reactions that pave the way for life.

Russell and his co-author describe the interaction between the original ocean and the alkaline hydrothermal fluid that produces acetate (comparable to vinegar). Acetate is the result of the reaction between methane and hydrogen from alkaline hydrothermal vents and CO ₂ dissolved in the surrounding oceans.

When this chemical reaction occurs, acetate becomes the basis of other biological molecules. They also describe how to make organic carbon and polymers, the first cell's energy coins can be assembled from inorganic minerals.

An article published in the journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta analyzed the structural similarity between the oldest enzymes and the precipitated mineral at alkaline hydrothermal vents.

Mike Russell said: "The work of studying alkaline hot water currents at the bottom of the ocean makes us believe that it is the best explanation for the origin of life and energy, their hypothesis. I was tested, following the principle of thermodynamics'.

Russell's work is funded by NASA Biological Academy through the Icy Worlds groups located at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. NASA Astrobiology Institute based at NASA's Ames Research Center, the institute supports research on the origin, evolution, distribution, the future of life on earth and the potential for life elsewhere .