By firing projectiles into water targets at speeds of up to 7,000 km/h, researchers have found that the impacts can produce clay minerals and organic compounds - ingredients that are essential for life.
The findings suggest that asteroids may have played a significant role in delivering water and organic material to Earth when it was young and barren, helping to create the conditions for the development of life.
The research team was led by scientists at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and involved collaboration with colleagues at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, and several other institutions.
Asteroids are small, rocky bodies that orbit the sun, and they are thought to be the leftover debris from the early formation of the solar system. Some asteroids contain a significant amount of water ice, and it is thought that these objects could have delivered water to Earth when they collided with our planet in the past.
In the new experiments, the researchers fired projectiles made of various materials, including silicate and carbonaceous chondrite, into water targets at different speeds.
They found that the impacts produced a range of materials, including clay minerals and organic compounds. These materials are important for life, and their presence suggests that asteroids may have played a role in the development of life on Earth.
The experiments showed that the higher the speed of the impact, the more organic material was produced. This suggests that the asteroids that delivered water and organic material to Earth may have been moving very fast when they collided with our planet.
"Our experiments show that asteroids could have delivered the essential ingredients for life to the early Earth," said Oliver Botta, lead author of the study and a PhD student at the University of Bern.
"These findings are important for our understanding of the origins of life on Earth and the evolution of our solar system."
