Increasingly, scientists wonder if life originated in space. How life began is among the greatest of mysteries. The Bible, Qur'an, and other sacred texts say God created the living things of Earth, but offer few clues as to the manner in which this miracle was accomplished. Evolutionary biology assumes life commenced through accidents of chemistry, but even the most ardent Darwinians admit they have no idea what the initial process was.
Paleontologists puzzle over the lack of any physical evidence of how the spark of biology was lit.
Now a new study of moon rocks is lending indirect credence to this maverick idea. Writing in the latest issue of the technical journal Science, a team of researchers reported that analysis of lunar material brought back during the Apollo program suggests that the Earth and moon went through a sustained bombardment by meteors and comets roughly 400 million years ago. First, a thumbnail sketch of what science thinks it knows about the rise of life. Earth appears to have formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Initially, intense radiation from the developing sun, combined with constant asteroid strikes, made Earth uninhabitable.