The meteoroid origin of life theory postulates that billions of years ago a meteoroid containing bacteria or some type of carbon-based life struck the earth surface, a warm pond, or some type of primordial soup, and thus started evolution (life).
In origin of life theories, meteoroid origin of life theory, "meteoric hypothesis" or “panspermia”, holds that the first form of life on earth originated from a meteoroid or meteor that fell to earth.
History The meteorite theory origin of life (or panspermia) has been proposed by several scientists.
In 1834, Jacob Berzelius obtained samples of the Alais meteorite (a meteorite that had fell near the town of Alais in France in 1802) and subjected them to chemical analysis, and found the presence of carbon compounds, which to Berzelius meant life. [1] This seems to have been the start of the so-called "comet origin of life theory".
French chemist Marcellin Berthelot isolated “coallike” material from the 1864 Orgueil meteorite and under the microscope, tiny spherical grains were revealed, coated in carbonaceous material, which reminded Berthelot of fossilized bacterial cells. [1]
Other theories were put forward by those including: William Thomson (1871), Hermann Helmholtz (1874), and Svante Arrhenius (1903).
In 1875, Balfour Stewart and Peter Tait were discussing the "meteoric hypothesis" as Thomson and Helmholtz theorized. [3]
References 1. Davies, Paul. (2000). The Fifth Miracle: the Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life (pgs. 225-26). Simon and Schuster. 2. Helmholtz, Hermann. (1874). “On the Use and Abuse of the Deductive Method in Physical Science” (translator: Crum Brown), from Helmholtz’ preface to the second part of the German edition of William Thomson and Peter Tait’s Treatise on Natural Philosophy, vol. 1; in: Nature, 11:149-51, Dec 24; in Nature, 11:211-12, Jan. 14. 3. Stewart, Balfour and Tait, Peter G. (1875). The Unseen Universe: or Physical Speculations on a Future State (§:239). Macmillan.
