Scientists Claim to Have Found The First Known Alien Protein

[allisrelative]

I think this is important not just for the extraterrestrial part but it can help explain how life starts on planets through Panspermia.

A new discovery could be a clue for us to see if life could emerge elsewhere in the Solar System. Using a new analysis technique, scientists think they have found an extraterrestrial protein, tucked inside a meteorite that fell to Earth 30 years ago.

If their results can be replicated, it will be the first protein ever identified that didn't originate here on Earth.

"This paper characterises the first protein to be discovered in a meteorite," the researchers wrote in a paper uploaded to preprint server arXiv. Their work is yet to be peer reviewed, but the implications of this finding are noteworthy.

The researchers are calling this newly discovered protein hemolithin. While hemolithin is structurally similar to terrestrial proteins, its ratio of deuterium to hydrogen was not matched by anything on Earth. It is, however, consistent with long-period comets.

This suggests, the researchers argue, that the structure they have identified as protein is of extraterrestrial origin, and possibly formed in the proto-solar disc, over 4.6 billion years ago.

https://www.sciencealert.com/scient...known-extraterrestrial-protein-in-a-meteorite

This could really be groundbreaking. If we find proteins that can develop in space, that would be a really good narrative as to how life started on Earth and why we might find microbial life on other planets.

If proteins form in space, then you can have a situation where simple replicators form on Earth then these early proteins from space seed a planet. These proteins then are replicated by the replicators. There's then a jump to digital information and DNA.

I accept an Intelligent Design interpretation of evolution but I wanted to ask what do people think about this narrative vs. Abiogenisis?

Maybe we should look for evidence of life made of these precursor proteins that formed in space.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

This finding was discussed here a few months ago: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/et-hemolithin.985054/