Do we have cosmic dust to thank for life on Earth?

It might be that what set prebiotic chemistry in motion and kept it going in the early days of the Earth was dust from outer space accumulating in holes melted into ice sheets. Researchers at ETH Zurich and the University of Cambridge have used a computer model to test this scenario.

An asteroid is breaking up, producing a lot of dust, which reaches the Earth eventually
An asteroid is breaking up, producing a lot of dust, which reaches the Earth eventually. (Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech)

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