Origins of Life Series

How did life start on our planet? Before the earth cooled from its fiery beginnings, there had to be a moment when a critical mass ensued. When light and particles and organic matter combined to create the first cells.

Did these elements come from the deepest vents in the Mariana trench thousands of feet below the ocean where hot steam rises from the ocean floor? Are we and all life a product of volcanic activity emanating from the magma core of the earth?

The earliest known life forms on Earth are putative fossilized microorganisms found in hydrothermal vent precipitates. The earliest time that life forms first appeared on Earth is unknown. They could have lived earlier than 3.77 billion years ago, possibly as early as 4.28 billion years ago. Not long after the oceans formed 4.41 billion years ago, and not long after the formation of the Earth 4.54 billion years ago. The earliest direct evidence of life on Earth are microfossils of microorganisms permineralized in 3.465-billion-year-old Australian Apex chert rocks.

On 26 May 2016 ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth were discovered on the comet that the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years. Scientists have long debated the important possibility that water, and organic molecules were brought by asteroids and comets to Earth after it cooled following its formation, providing some of the key building blocks for the emergence of life.

While some comets and asteroids are already known to have water with a composition like that of Earth’s oceans, Rosetta found a significant difference at its comet. New results reveal that comets had the potential to deliver ingredients critical to establish life as we know it, like amino acids, which are biologically important organic compounds containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and form the basis of proteins.
Now, Rosetta has made direct, repeated detections of the amino acid glycine in the fuzzy atmosphere or ‘coma’ of its comet. Another exciting detection made by Rosetta is of phosphorus, a key element in all known living organisms. For example, it is found in the structural framework of DNA and in cell membranes, and it is used in transporting chemical energy within cells for metabolism.

The paintings in this series were inspired by these recent scientific discoveries.

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