Life on Earth came from inside the Solar System, new Nasa study proposes

Key points

• A new Nasa-supported study has shed fresh light on one of science’s biggest mysteries: how Earth acquired the ingredients necessary for life.
• The research suggests that the essential elements phosphorus and nitrogen, both critical for life, were delivered primarily from the inner regions of the Solar System rather than from distant outer regions as previously thought.
• Published in the journal Science Advances, the study examined ancient meteorites to trace the origins of these life-supporting elements.
• Scientists analysed the ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen (P/N) in iron meteorites and chondrites, two classes of space rocks that preserve records of the Solar System’s earliest history.
• Earth formed more than 4.5 billion years ago from a swirling cloud of gas and dust around the young Sun.