The space is always full of more surprises than one can imagine. In a study, it has been mentioned that craters should be studied in great detail as they are prime locations for seeking potential habitats for extraterrestrial life.
According to a study published in the Astrobiology, space agencies like National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) should be studying craters in greater detail.
As per Gordon Osinski, Director of Western’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration (Western Space), “There are a lot of hypotheses for where life started on Earth and where we should look for life on Mars, but we are actually overlooking a major geological force and a key habitat in understanding the origin of life and that’s meteorite impacts and their resulting craters”.
In the study, he had led a team of international experts from the University of Edinburgh, Georgetown University, and the University of Southern California.
Elaborating upon what his study focuses on Osinski said, ”If you ask anyone to imagine what happens when you have kilometre-size chunks of rock hitting the Earth, it’s typically destructive. It’s an extinction event like the one that killed the dinosaurs”.
He added, “ What we are trying to do here is turn that idea up on its head and say yes, the impact is initially destructive, but it also delivers the building blocks for life and creates new habitats for life. They [impact craters] essentially create an oasis for life”.
In the study, it has been mentioned that the meteorite impact craters may represent the most likely sites where life originated on Earth. This is something that needs to be explored and most certainly deserves greater research.
The lead researcher also stated, “I put my money on meteorite impacts as the place where life could have originated on Earth, but we will never know. Unfortunately, due to billions of years of erosion, plate tectonics, and volcanism, we’ve lost the vast majority of the ancient rock record on Earth. So we’re never going to know exactly where or even when, to be honest, life originated on Earth”.
