The components from which the first life on Earth most likely emerged may have formed even before the planet itself was born — in the darkness and cold of the early Solar System. This is the conclusion reached by scientists at Harvard University after conducting a detailed isotopic analysis of several primitive meteorites. RBC-Ukraine reports, citing the publication Interesting Engineering. The discovery, published in September 2026, rewrites long-held assumptions about where and when the molecules that became the foundation of biological evolution on our planet first appeared.
What exactly the Harvard researchers studied
A team led by Daniel Crocker and David Johnston worked with a diverse collection of carbonaceous chondrites — rare stony meteorites more than 4.5 billion years old that formed directly from the protoplanetary dust cloud. The sample set included specimens of the CI, CM, and CR groups, as well as the extremely rare Bells and Tarda meteorites. Inside these objects are tiny mineral spheres — chondrules — along with complex organic compounds, primarily amino acids, whose origin has been the subject of scientific debate for decades.
The key evidence: the isotopic "fingerprint" of oxygen
The central question the researchers set out to answer was where exactly the organic molecules formed: in the deep open space of the cosmos, or later, under the influence of heating and chemical processes inside their parent asteroids. Thanks to precise measurements of the isotopic composition of oxygen in the meteorites' organic matter, the scientists detected a clear primary isotopic signature. This marker records the initial mixing of substances in the gas-dust disk long before the first planets appeared. In essence, the molecules acquired their oxygen at the very earliest stages of the Solar System's existence, when neither Earth nor any other body capable of "remelting" the chemical composition of the organics yet existed.
Why the markers survived for billions of years
At first glance, the result looks paradoxical: the asteroids carrying this organics were subjected, over billions of years, to powerful collisions, internal heating, and the effects of meltwater. Nevertheless, the chemical markers detected remained virtually untouched. The researchers explain this by noting that the organic matter originally formed in the cold outer regions of the young Solar System, where temperatures were too low to break down the molecules. It was then mixed in space and incorporated into meteorites that, over time, fell onto the young Earth, delivering ready-made "building blocks" for the further development of biological life.
Context: the search for organics beyond Earth
The Harvard study fits into the broader context of active searches for extraterrestrial organics. In parallel, the Perseverance rover continues to find a variety of organic compounds on the surface of Mars, confirming that complex carbon-based molecules are widespread throughout the Solar System. The combined body of data — from isotopic analysis of meteorites to Martian samples — forms a coherent picture: the organic precursors of life are not a unique product of the Earth's biosphere, but rather a cosmic "raw material" delivered to the planet from outside.
Significance for the science of the origin of life
Confirming that the organic molecules in meteorites carry the primary isotopic signature of the gas-dust disk shifts the starting point for the emergence of the biochemical prerequisites of life hundreds of millions of years earlier than the formation of Earth itself. This means that the "recipe" for life, so to speak, was written down even before planets began to assemble in orbit around the Sun. For the science of the origin of life (abiogenesis), this opens new horizons: if the organics formed in cold space, then the conditions of their synthesis are fundamentally different from those modeled in laboratories recreating the "primordial soup" of the early Earth.
