Study suggests cloud-to-ground lightning strikes may have generated building blocks for life on Earth

Originally published by Bob Yirka , Phys.org, on July 30, 2024

Cloud-to-ground lightning on the early Earth vs. a plasma-electrochemical setup used in this work. B) Key components of a plasma (air gap)-electrochemical setup used to conduct interfacial discharges under controlled environmental conditions. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2400819121

A large team of chemists at Harvard University has found evidence suggesting that cloud-to-ground lightning strikes may have helped generate some of the building blocks needed for life on Earth to arise.

In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how they set up an experiment in their lab meant to mimic the conditions on early Earth and then studied the results of chemical reactions that occurred as lightning strikes were simulated.

Prior research has suggested that life may have gotten its start on Earth through materials in comets or asteroids that made their way to Earth's surface. Cloud-to-cloud lightning strikes have also been named as a possible source of such materials.

But as scientists have studied such theories, they have all become less likely possibilities—collisions from objects in space became a rare event not long after the Earth formed, for example, and lightning strikes between clouds is a very inefficient way to generate useful materials.

In this new study, the team at Harvard suggests a much more plausible scenario is cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.

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