e a r l y e a r t h- wikispaces（e r l y e r t h wikispaces）.docVIP

EARLY EARTH Identify the relationship between the conditions on early Earth and the origin of organic molecules. What does identify mean? Structure your answer. Learn the content before you write an answer. Key words Be succinct Early Earth was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago. During its early years the Earth underwent many changes. Clouds of water vapour that originally surrounded the Earth began to form the seas. The seas were quite warm. There were only one or two large land masses. Volcanoes were continually active spewing ash and lava into the atmosphere. The original atmosphere was thought to only contain hydrogen and helium. However due to the lack of gravity these gases escaped the atmosphere. This gave rise to the secondary atmosphere which contained hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane and ammonia. There was no free oxygen making this environment anoxic. These gases on the early Earth had the main constituents to form organic molecules (C, H, and O) which in turn led to the origin of organic molecules around 4 billion years ago. Once these organic compounds arose primitive cells began to emerge around 3.5 billion years ago. Discuss the implications of the existence of organic molecules in the cosmos for the origin of life on earth. What does discuss mean? Underline key words and identify what they mean Know what you are going to write before you write an answer Some scientists have suggested that our DNA and RNA (C, H, O, N, P) could have come from outer space. This theory arose due to the fact that early Earth was bombarded with meteorites/asteroids for approximately 500 years. Fred Hoyle stated that small microbes and other micro-organisms came to Earth from outer space via meteorites/asteroids. Astronomers have detected carbon compounds in meteorites and comets, however there is not enough concrete evidence to support that the cosmos was the soul cause for the origin of life. OTHER KEY FACT