Possible Role of Meteorites in the Origin of Life

IT has been postulated by Oparin1 that life originated in the seas of the primitive Earth, at a time when the atmosphere was reducing. The dominant sources of free energy for biopoesis are presumed to have been lightning discharges in the atmosphere and ultra-violet radiation from the Sun2. However, both agents tend to deposit organic compounds relatively high in the atmosphere, rather than in the seas. Advection, convection, and diffusion must be invoked as the mechanisms depositing the reaction products in the hydrosphere. The purpose of this communication is to suggest a physical process capable of yielding organic compounds of high complexity in the primitive atmosphere and providing a relatively high efficiency of transfer to the hydrosphere.