Abstract
The study of the origin of life on the Earth is impeded by the fact that very few ancient rocks from the era of the appearance of biological systems are preserved. The oldest sedimentary rock formations are about 3.9 billion years old, and even these show indications of the early emergence of life [1]. Impacts, tectonic activity and erosion have hopelessly destroyed all the information predating the aforementioned age. Nevertheless, here we show that the Moon could constitute an invaluable reservoir of very ancient terrestrial rocks, stripped off the surface of our planet during the great bombardment that took place shortly after the origin of the solar system. These rocks could store information about the origin of life on Earth that our own planet wiped aeons ago.
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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Gutiérrez, J.L. (2001). Terrene Meteorites on The Moon. In: Chela-Flores, J., Owen, T., Raulin, F. (eds) First Steps in the Origin of Life in the Universe. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1017-7_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1017-7_30
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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