New study finds asteroid strikes sparked life on early Earth
Turns out, asteroid strikes weren't just bad news for early Earth: they actually helped kick-start life here.
According to a new study, these ancient collisions cracked the planet's crust and mixed water with heat from deep inside the Earth.
This combo created hydrothermal systems, which are basically natural labs where the first building blocks of life could form.
Asteroid could create 100x hydrothermal zones
Researchers found that a single big asteroid could make hydrothermal zones up to 100 times more extensive than the hydrothermal activity currently found across all of Yellowstone National Park today.
By about 4.3 billion years ago, the upper 8km of Earth's crust may have been extensively permeable, riddled with fractures, and actively circulating water: conditions that may have persisted until at least 3.5 billion years ago, when the earliest evidence for life begins to appear.
Pretty wild to think we might owe our existence to some cosmic chaos!