The answer to the question of how life originated has been unanswered to this day. While scientists agreed with the prevailing theories about the origin of life and where it came from, NASA experts returned to the laboratory. Astrobiologists have focused their efforts on answering basic questions about the origin of life.

Scientists firmly believe that life on young Earth originated about four billion years ago. We still don't know which spark ignited this process, but evidence tells us it originated in the depths of the young Earth's ocean. And in a place where the sun's rays have managed to penetrate at least a little. If we understand which exact impulse and which stimulus ignited life, it may help us to understand how life could have arisen on distant alien exoplanets or moons.

Hydrothermal valves

One of the main theories about the origin of life points to structures lying deep in the sea. We call them hydrothermal valves, through which volcanic activity seeps. In these places, high temperatures are escaping from inside the planet. Billions of years ago, when the Earth was still young and washed away by the deadly ultraviolet rays coming from the Sun, life appeared in the depths of the ocean, where the sun's rays could not penetrate.

It is generally believed that the first organisms capable of surviving without photosynthesis have appeared around the thermal valves. Such a process later became the basic principle of life for most of the organisms living on Earth at the time. The early animals of the prehistoric oceans of the earth relied on chemosynthesis to use chemical energy to gain energy as they accumulated around thermal valves. The chemical reactions between the sulfites that escaped from the thermal valves and the oxygen present in the seawater gave rise to the first food - sugar molecules. Bacteria, and some other organisms, were able to process it for their nutrition and at the same time were able to survive in the dark. This is completely new information in our search for someone else's life.

NASA and its experiment

NASA experts believe that some of the most distant moons in our solar system, Europa and Enceladus, may have hydrothermal valves in frozen oceans under frozen surfaces. To better understand these processes, astrobiologist Laurie Barge and her team built a small section of the seabed in a laboratory called the Jet Propulsion laboratory. Here they created an environment that was in the oceans billions of years ago.

L. Barge explains:

"Understanding how far you can go with simple organic matter and minerals before you get a real cell is important to understand the life conditions from which life could emerge."

Also, research into things like the composition of the atmosphere, ocean, and minerals in hydrothermal valves, all of which help to understand the likelihood that life will occur on another planet. Thus, NASA researchers created a mixture of water, minerals such as pyruvate and ammonia - two basic molecules that formed under the conditions of hydrothermal valves necessary for the ingress of amino acids. According to a NASA report, the researchers tested their hypothesis by heating the solution to 70 degrees Celsius - the same temperature that was measured near the hydrothermal valves - and adjusting the pH to an alkaline environment.

Life Starter

They also deprived the water of oxygen, because compared to today, the young oceans were poor in oxygen. Finally, iron hydroxide was added, a green rust that was in abundance on young Earth. The research then noted that by injecting a small amount of oxygen into the water, the alanine amino acid began to form. Alpha-lactate hydroacid, a secondary product of the amino acid reaction, has also begun to form, which can combine forming complex organic molecules. These molecules are the starters of life.

L. Barge explains:

"We have shown that in the geological conditions of the young Earth, and perhaps on other planets, we can form amino acids and alpha hydroacids by a simple reaction that should exist on the seabed."

The creation of amino acids and alpha hydroacids in the laboratory is the culmination of nine years of research into the origin of life.