A question about pre-life conditions on Earth

Kuko 4000

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Kuko 4000
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I'm a bit puzzled about how much is known about the conditions on the early Earth before any life arose? Was Stanley Miller close to the truth? How much do we know currently, is it controversial?

I'm once again getting lost in the information and looking for a short cut before getting my hands dirty.
 
Pretty wide field there, you might start with the formation of a planetary system in a Type II area of the galaxy. there are so many issues to address, one is what was the composition of the dust and gas cloud that generated our planetary system. Which is why studies of the Moon, Mars and assorted comets and other bodies is important.


It sure looks as though many of the precursors to life were already in the planetary disk as it was forming.

here is something very introductory and incomplete:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080821164603.htm
 
What is known is that there was definately no oxygen on Earth during that time period, many things else is more difficult to ascertain.

However, we do know that ammonia and other compounds used in the Miller-Urey Experiment was present. The fact that the conditions used in the experiment may not have been an exact copy of pre-life Earth is irrelevant, Creationist are missing the point. The experiment was a proof of concept. Before that experiment, many claimed that organic materials could not spontenously arise from inorganics, now we know that is possible for organic materials to arise that way; also via deep pressure undersea vents and is also found in comets.

What was once "impossible" became plausible.
 
paximperium said:
What is known is that there was definately no oxygen on Earth during that time period
Click to expand...

Well, there was no free, molecular oxygen. There was plenty of oxygen locked up in other compounds. I'm that's what you meant, but it's worth making the distinction - I've seen people confused about how the first life could have created oxygen atoms.
 
Cuddles said:
Well, there was no free, molecular oxygen. There was plenty of oxygen locked up in other compounds. I'm that's what you meant, but it's worth making the distinction - I've seen people confused about how the first life could have created oxygen atoms.
Click to expand...

To be picky, there was oxides of various sorts but no oxygen or O2 in significant amounts in our atmosphere.
 
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