AfterTek

In a meteorite that landed on a frozen lake in northwestern British Columbia, scientists found small bubbles of organic material that might be older than the sun.

NASA researchers say the ancient globules add weight to the theory that space rocks delivered the raw materials required for the evolution of the first life forms on Earth. The globules found in the meteorite aren’t alive, but can be an ingredient for it.

Scientists believe it to be the most primitive meteorite ever recovered, a relic from the early moments of our solar system. The bubbles contain rare types of hydrogen and nitrogen that are not found on Earth. They were formed in intense cold, -260 C, either in the outer reaches of our nascent solar system or in the giant cloud of cosmic dust and gas that gave birth to our sun and the planets that orbit it.

They say these kinds of globules were likely found in many of the meteorites that bombarded the young Earth. They may have provided the building blocks for life and the perfect protected bubble-like environment for it to form. There were millions of globules in the grape-like piece of rock she studied.

No one is sure how life first evolved on Earth. But the general scientific theory is that compounds that were either already here or that arrived on space rocks eventually combined and gave rise to a single-celled organism.

Scientists have reported finding these kinds of globules in other meteorites for years, but it was unclear whether they were extraterrestrial material, or the result of human or other earthly contamination.

Some meteorite fragments were sold for $750,000. They will remain in Canada, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

The initial analysis showed the fragments to be laden with stardust, minerals and organic compounds, said Alan Hildebrand, a meteorite expert at the University of Calgary. It is perhaps the most primitive meteorite ever recovered, a relic from the early moments of our solar system.