Constraining prebiotic chemistry through a better understanding of Earth’s earliest environments

Timothy W Lyons ,Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy,Dustin Trail,S Marchi ,Loren Dean Williams ,Edward Schwieterman,Noah J Planavsky ,K L Rogers ,Christopher T Reinhard

doi:10.3847/25c2cfeb.7a898b78

Abstract

Whitepaper #143 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: surface/geological evolution; life and prebiotic organics; other science themes: early Earth environments

Highlights

White paper submitted in response to the call from the National Academy of Science for community input for the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032
Studies of the emergence of life must become a truly interdisciplinary effort, requiring a mix that expands the traditional platform of prebiotic chemistry to include geochemists, atmospheric chemists, geologists and geophysicists, astronomers, mission scientists and engineers, and astrobiologists
Studies of the chemical origins of life start with the hypothesis that mixtures of simple small molecules under the influence of various energy sources and early Earth environments would lead to the building blocks of life and that interactions among these molecules eventually lead to life

Summary

MOTIVATIONS: A SUMMARY

Any search for present or past life beyond Earth should consider the initial processes and related environmental controls that might have led to its start. As on Earth, such an understanding lies well beyond how simple organic molecules become the more complex biomolecules of life, because it must include the key environmental factors that permitted, modulated, and most critically facilitated the prebiotic pathways to life’s emergence. A rigorous, interdisciplinary understanding of that relationship has not been explored adequately and once better understood will inform our search for life beyond Earth. In this way, studies of the emergence of life must become a truly interdisciplinary effort, requiring a mix that expands the traditional platform of prebiotic chemistry to include geochemists, atmospheric chemists, geologists and geophysicists, astronomers, mission scientists and engineers, and astrobiologists

THE CONTEXT

BUILDING BRIDGES AND PRIORITIZING