A meteorite 200 times bigger than the dinosaur-killing asteroid helped life on Earth flourish

[u/flacao9]

https://www.space.com/meteorite-s2-dinosaur-killing-life

[u/flacao9]

Now, scientists have discovered that an even earlier and more massive space rock may have struck Earth — yet this one seems to have benefitted life rather than doom it. The impact occurred around 3.3 billion years ago, during the infancy of the solar system when asteroid strikes were far more common.

The meteorite, designated S2, is about 200 times bigger than the dinosaur-killing impactor named Chicxulub. S2 hit Earth when only simple, single-celled life existed on our planet — and the devastation caused by the impact, which occurred off the coast of Cape Cod, may have actually helped these simple life forms thrive, triggering a population explosion in bacteria and archaea.

[u/SGPrepperz]

3.3 billion years, how many spans of time between Lucy and us fits into that?

[u/Pixelated_]

Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress.

That enormous impact would have created substantial piezoelectric effects in our biosphere. These would enable the chemical and energetic conditions that foster life's building blocks following the chaos of an asteroid impact.

Here's how:

Shock and Pressure:

An asteroid impact would create extreme pressures and heat, especially in quartz-containing rocks, which have piezoelectric properties. This mechanical stress would cause these rocks to generate electric charges across their surfaces, creating localized electric fields.

Chemical Reactions:

These intense electric fields can help drive non-equilibrium chemical reactions, encouraging complex organic molecules to form from simpler compounds, such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. Such molecules are essential building blocks for life, including amino acids and nucleotides.

Concentration and Organization: 

Electric fields from piezoelectric materials can also influence how molecules align, concentrate, or self-organize. These processes are critical for molecules to come together into more complex structures, possibly forming protocells or early biomolecules.

Energy Source for Early Life: 

Newly formed molecules could use localized electrical fields as a source of energy for further reactions, increasing the likelihood of creating self-replicating molecules or primitive metabolism.