An international team of scientists, led by senior researcher at the Institute of Planetary Sciences Oleg Abramov, conducted a series of virtual experiments on a model similar to the origin of Earth.
European and American planetary scientists, biologists, and geologists have concluded that the earliest forms of what is known as "RNA life," predating the emergence of the first protein-based life forms, arose on Earth approximately 4.33 billion years ago, when an environment conducive to their development was formed. This conclusion was confirmed by the scientists in an article published in the journal Nature Communications.
The study stated: "We thoroughly examined the conditions under which RNA molecules and other potential 'building blocks' of the first life forms on Earth settled. These calculations indicate that these molecules began to accumulate and be preserved approximately 4.33 billion years ago, 130 million years before the presumed emergence of 'Luca' as a common ancestor of all modern life forms."
Within this computer model, scientists reproduced all the chemical composition characteristics of our planet that were distinctive to it in the “Hadins,” 4–4.54 billion years ago, as well as the characteristics of its geology and space environment.
Scientists conducted virtual experiments on a model of early Earth. Within this computer model, they reproduced all the chemical composition characteristics of our planet that defined it during the Hadean period, 4–4.54 billion years ago, as well as its geological features and atmosphere.
These calculations helped scientists assess how various events in Earth's early history, including its collision with the Moon's progenitor and periods of mass asteroid and comet impacts, affected the planet's ability to support life. Based on these calculations, Abramov and his colleagues concluded that Earth's surface was regularly "sterilized" during the first 140 million years of its existence and was unsuitable for the emergence of RNA life.
In the following 70 million years, Earth's geological conditions stabilized, creating a window of opportunity for the emergence and continuation of the first complex biological systems capable of self-replication. Optimal conditions for this occurred approximately 4.33 billion years ago, about 210 million years after the planet's formation and roughly 130 million years before the presumed appearance of the first protein-based organisms.
This last point, as Abramov and his colleagues noted, indicates that the era of the “RNA world” lasted for a relatively short time, and that the terrestrial life familiar to us arose as a result of a chemical evolutionary process in a relatively short time after the appropriate conditions appeared, fundamentally changing scientists’ perceptions of how life arose on Earth and on other potentially inhabited planets.
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