A CHEMICAL vital for life on Earth may have arrived ready-made from space. Unexpectedly, a chondritic meteorite has been found to contain large amounts of ammonia, a nitrogen-rich chemical vital for forming the basic building blocks of life.
Explaining how enough ammonia for life appeared on the early Earth has been a puzzle, because sunlight rapidly destroys ammonia gas in the atmosphere.
Now, Sandra Pizzarello of Arizona State University in Tempe and her colleagues report finding abundant ammonia after boiling powder from a meteorite in water and exposing it to high pressures, mimicking conditions on the early Earth.…
