A Stormy, Active Sun May Have Kickstarted Life on Earth

The first building blocks of life on Earth may have formed thanks to eruptions from our Sun, a recent study finds. A series of chemical experiments show how solar particles, colliding with gases in Earth’s early atmosphere, can form amino acids and carboxylic acids, the basic building blocks of proteins and organic life. The findings were published in the journal Life. How did Earth warm enough to support life? A recent research suggests that the answer lies in a perfect coupling between a star and a planet. Today, Earth stays warm because carbon dioxide in the atmosphere holds in reflected heat from the sun. But four billion years ago, the Earth received less warmth from the sun because the sun was a young star and produced less heat. Recent models of our young star show it was much more violent than it is now, constantly erupting and sending out huge particle clouds. Young Earth was different too. It was still growing its magnetosphere, the magnetic shield that protects p