Artist’s concept of meteors impacting ancient Earth. Some scientists think such impacts may have delivered water and other molecules useful to emerging life on Earth.NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
From NASA Goddard
Cyanide and carbon monoxide are both deadly poisons to humans, but compounds containing iron, cyanide, and carbon monoxide discovered in carbon-rich meteorites by a team of scientists at Boise State University and NASA may have helped power life on early Earth. The extraterrestrial compounds found in meteorites resemble the active site of hydrogenases, which are enzymes that provide energy to bacteria and archaea by breaking down hydrogen gas (H2). Their results suggest that these compounds were also present on early Earth, before life began, during a period of time when Earth was constantly bombarded by meteorites and the atmosphere was likely more hydrogen-rich.
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Meteorites contain metal-organic compounds that resemble portions of enzymes found in bacteria and archaea. CN is cyanide, CO is carbon monoxide, Fe is iron, Ni is nickel.Image credit: Smith et al. Nature Communications, 2019.
The study, “Organometallic compounds as carriers of extraterrestrial cyanide in primitive meteorites,” was published in the journal Nature: Communications. This work was supported by the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) element of the NASA Astrobiology Program, and the Emerging Worlds Program. The NASA Astrobiology Program provides resources for Emerging Worlds and other Research and Analysis programs within the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) that solicit proposals relevant to astrobiology research.