At the beginning of time, the chemistry of the earth was just right for life: oxygen was the solution

Our home planet Earth could once have been formed in conditions where just the right chemistry favored the birth of life.

Just the right amount of oxygen made it possible for the two elements important and necessary for life to remain near the surface of the Earth. The elements are phosphorus and nitrogen.

Without the perfect balance of these two elements, life in its current form would not exist.

Of course, our planet could look habitable from afar. However, it would not be able to sustain biology without certain elements.

This is proven by a study published by a scientific journal Nature Astronomy.

When a planet forms, it is initially partially or completely molten. The Earth was in a molten state just under 4.6 billion years ago.

Heavy metals sink towards the interior of the forming planet. They will eventually form the core of the planet.

Lighter substances stay closer to the planet’s surface.

When the planet’s core is formed, the amount of oxygen plays a decisive role.

It determines where the other elements end up. If certain elements don’t fall into the right place, the possibility of the birth of life becomes difficult.

Water is of course important for the birth of life, but only part of the story.

Researchers ldiscovered important conditions for life when they modeled the formation of planets geochemically.

They found that the nascent Earth had just the right, narrow region of intermediate oxygen concentration.

Oxygen must be present in a surprisingly narrow area so that both phosphorus and nitrogen remain in the planet’s mantle and crust. This is what the lead author of the study says Craig Walton in the bulletin.

Walton is a researcher in the conditions of life at the Zurich University of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland.

If there is too little oxygen, the element phosphorus binds to iron. Along with the iron, it travels to the core of the planet. If there is too much oxygen, nitrogen escapes into space

Phosphorus is a key component of the basis of life on the surface of the planet, i.e. DNA.

Phosphorus is also an important element for the cell membranes of the basic unit of life, the cell. Phosphorus also plays a role in the energy economy of the cell.

Nitrogen, on the other hand, is important for proteins. Cells produce proteins for different tasks in the body.

Maa may, based on the research, be a very lucky exception in the universe, says website Space.com.

Early on, the Earth got what looked like a rare chemical jackpot.

Modeling the birth of the neighboring planet Mars, for example, showed researchers that its mantle does contain phosphorus, but much less nitrogen.

The chemistry of Mars does not offer good conditions for life, at least not in the form as we know life.

The modeling challenges the notion that water is the most essential for the existence of life. Water is of course important for the birth of life, but only part of the story.

Discovery could change the way scientists search for life elsewhere in space. The search for life on other planets may become more specific.

Perhaps we should look for planetary bodies where the parent stars resemble our own Sun, Walton says in the announcement.

Planets are usually made of the same ingredients as their parent stars. Therefore, the chemistry of the stars can hint at whether the planetary system would have the conditions for life.

More than 6,000 planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, i.e. exoplanets, have already been found.