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There’s new evidence that life on Earth began with meteorites crashing into warm little ponds

New study provides evidence for that theory that meteorites may have delivered compounds that could have led to the formation of RNA (a cousin of DNA) in ponds all over the Earth

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Photo: REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

By Kevin Loria

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The biggest question about life is an obvious one, but the answer is hotly debated.

How did it all begin?

The most well-known of biologists, Charles Darwin, once theorised in a private letter to his friend Joseph Lee Hooker that life — the very first molecules of it — could have emerged from a “warm little pond” where some precursor components underwent a chemical reaction, creating compounds that would later develop into the forms of life as we know them today.

The other main theory is that life could have first emerged underwater at ultrahot hydrothermal vents, where cold seawater is heated to searing temperatures by volcanic activity deep in the ocean, providing enough energy to transform chemicals and other particles.

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This week, the warm little ponds theory got a boost.

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