Life as we know it may not have existed if the Earth wasn’t repeatedly bombarded by massive planetary bodies more than four billion years ago according to new research conducted by scientists at the Univ. of New Mexico and NASA Johnson Space Center. The results of the massive collisions indicate that much of Earth’s supply of chlorine was blown away creating a habitable environment suitable for the existence of complex forms of life – including humans.
In a paper published recently in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, UNM Regents’ Prof. Zach Sharp, UNM Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and David Draper of the NASA Johnson Space Center (formerly of UNM’s Institute of Meteoritics), research suggests the removal of the chlorine through these collisions helped provide Earth the means necessary for its own evolution.
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