Oró J, Mills T, Lazcano A
Department of Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences, The University of Houston, TX 77204, USA.
Adv Space Res. 1995 Mar;15(3):81-90. doi: 10.1016/s0273-1177(99)80067-2.
The notion that comets supplied the primitive Earth with the requisite chemical species for the process of chemical evolution, which is widely held to have led to the origin of life on Earth, has now gained considerable intellectual momentum since its first formulation in 1961. In fact, in the fall of 1991, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire hosted a well attended scientific meeting devoted solely to the discussion of this topic, entitled Comets and the Origin and Evolution of Life [see Special Issue of Origins of Life, P.J. Thomas (ed), vol. 21(5-6)]. As a result of the above meeting, the recently completed COSPAR/World Space Congress Symposium on Extraterrestrial Organic Chemistry and the Origins of Life, and numerous independent reports, the role of comets in the Earth's biogenesis has been thoroughly addressed in the literature. At this time, in light of a few recent findings, we present here a concise review of this topic together with a brief discussion of the possible role of cometary material in the origin of life elsewhere in the Universe.
彗星为原始地球提供了化学进化过程所需化学物质的观点，自1961年首次提出以来，如今已获得了相当大的学术影响力。人们普遍认为，化学进化导致了地球上生命的起源。事实上，1991年秋，威斯康星大学欧克莱尔分校主办了一场参会者众多的科学会议，专门讨论这一主题，会议名为“彗星与生命的起源和演化”[见《生命起源》特刊，P.J. 托马斯（编），第21卷（5 - 6期）]。鉴于上述会议、最近结束的国际空间研究委员会/世界空间大会关于地外有机化学与生命起源的研讨会以及众多独立报告，彗星在地球生物起源中的作用已在文献中得到了充分探讨。此时，鉴于最近的一些发现，我们在此对这一主题进行简要综述，并简要讨论彗星物质在宇宙其他地方生命起源中可能发挥的作用。
