Astrobiologists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory built a tiny version of a deep-sea vent in Earth's primordial ocean -- and it produced one of the basic building blocks of life. Biologists still haven't pieced together all the details of how the first cells emerged from chemical reactions, but deep-sea hydrothermal vents are one of the most likely incubators for the first life on Earth. In a dark, sunless sea, a vent provides the energy needed to fuel the chemistry of life. That demonstrates that hydrothermal vents in an otherwise cold, sunless ocean can produce the chemical reactions that may eventually lead to life. ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENTJPL Icy Worlds isn't the first project to try to replicate life on early Earth in the lab.

Source: Forbes February 28, 2019 06:45 UTC