科学家称，彗星可能为地球带来了“生命的基本元素”

科学家称，彗星可能为地球带来了“生命的基本元素”

A new study suggests that comets had a huge hand in helping life form on Earth, bringing integral elements such as phosphorus, “an essential element for life,” to the planet.

一项新的研究表明，彗星在帮助地球上的生命形成方面发挥了巨大的作用，为地球带来了不可或缺的元素，如磷，“生命的基本元素”。

The research utilized the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescopes in Chile, as well as the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, to look at the AFGL 1542 star-forming region. They found molecules such as phosphorus monoxide.

这项研究利用智利的阿塔卡马大型毫米/亚毫米阵列(ALMA)望远镜以及欧洲航天局的罗塞塔(Rosetta)航天器来观测AFGL 1542恒星形成区。他们发现了一氧化二磷等分子。

“Life appeared on Earth about 4 billion years ago, but we still do not know the processes that made it possible,” says Víctor Rivilla, the lead author of the study, in a statement.

这项研究的主要作者维克多·里维拉在一份声明中说:“大约40亿年前，地球上出现了生命，但我们仍然不知道是什么过程使它成为可能。”

In AFGL 1542, stars are created from enormous clouds comprised of gas and dust, as well as the building blocks of life, notably phosphorus. Phosphorus molecules are created as these stars are born and they release radiation, with the molecules traveling through space.

在1542年的AFGL中，恒星是由巨大的云组成的，这些云由气体和尘埃组成，同时也是生命的基石，尤其是磷。磷分子是在这些恒星诞生时产生的，它们释放辐射，分子在太空中穿行。

After observing AFGL 1542, researchers looked at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko using the Rosetta spacecraft in the Solar System to see if the phosphorus molecules were present — and they were.

在观测了AFGL 1542之后，研究人员使用太阳系的罗塞塔飞船观察了67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko彗星，看看磷分子是否存在——它们确实存在。

Kathrin Altwegg, an author on the study, said she was clued into finding the phosphorus molecules after she was approached by another astronomer who looked at star-forming regions with ALMA. “She said that phosphorus monoxide would be a very likely candidate, so I went back to our data and there it was!”

这项研究的作者之一凯瑟琳?阿尔特韦格(Kathrin Altwegg)说，另一位与阿尔玛一起研究恒星形成区域的天文学家找到她，让她有了发现磷分子的线索。“她说一氧化二磷是一个非常有可能的候选者，所以我回到我们的数据，它就在那里!”

“Since comets may have delivered a significant amount of prebiotic material to the early Earth, this finding suggests that [phosphorus] could contribute significantly to the phosphorus reservoir during the dawn of our planet,” the researchers wrote in the study’s abstract.

研究人员在研究摘要中写道:“由于彗星可能向地球早期输送了大量的生命起源前物质，这一发现表明，(磷)可能在我们星球的黎明时期为磷的储存做出了重大贡献。”

“There is evidence that [phosphorus] was already in the cometary ices prior to the birth of the Sun, so the chemical budget of the comet might be inherited from the natal environment of the Solar System, which is thought to be a stellar cluster including also massive stars.”

“有证据表明，在太阳诞生之前，(磷)就已经存在于彗星的冰中了，所以彗星的化学成分可能是从太阳系的诞生环境中继承下来的，而太阳系是一个恒星群，包括大质量恒星。”

Researchers had previously detected phosphorus in a haze around the comet but were not certain how it got there.

研究人员此前曾在彗星周围的薄雾中检测到磷，但不确定它是如何到达那里的。

As not all of the phosphorus molecules are used to make stars, the leftovers can become asteroids and comets and bring life, an idea known as panspermia.

由于并不是所有的磷分子都被用来制造恒星，剩下的磷分子可以变成小行星和彗星并带来生命，这就是所谓的生源说。

Panspermia is the hypothesis that life on Earth originated from microorganisms in outer space that were carried here unintentionally by objects such as space dust, meteoroids and asteroids, according to an article on NASA’s website.

根据美国国家航空航天局网站上的一篇文章，“生源说”是一种假说，认为地球上的生命起源于外层空间的微生物，这些微生物是由太空尘埃、流星体和小行星等物体无意中带到地球上的。

“Phosphorus is essential for life as we know it,” Altwegg added.

“正如我们所知，磷是生命所必需的。”Altwegg补充道。