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Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence: Olivine, Pyrrhotite, Bridgmanite, Serpentine, Fougerite and Mackinawite

Life cannot emerge on a planet or moon without the appropriate electrochemical disequilibria and the minerals that mediate energy-dissipative processes. Here, it is argued that four minerals, olivine ([Mg>Fe](2)SiO(4)), bridgmanite ([Mg,Fe]SiO(3)), serpentine ([Mg,Fe,](2-3)Si(2)O(5)[OH)](4)), and...

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Autores principales: Russell, Michael J., Ponce, Adrian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7699418/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33228029
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10110291
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author Russell, Michael J.
Ponce, Adrian
author_facet Russell, Michael J.
Ponce, Adrian
author_sort Russell, Michael J.
collection PubMed
description Life cannot emerge on a planet or moon without the appropriate electrochemical disequilibria and the minerals that mediate energy-dissipative processes. Here, it is argued that four minerals, olivine ([Mg>Fe](2)SiO(4)), bridgmanite ([Mg,Fe]SiO(3)), serpentine ([Mg,Fe,](2-3)Si(2)O(5)[OH)](4)), and pyrrhotite (Fe((1−x))S), are an essential requirement in planetary bodies to produce such disequilibria and, thereby, life. Yet only two minerals, fougerite ([Fe(2+)(6x)Fe(3+)(6(x−1))O(12)H(2(7−3x))](2+)·[(CO(2−))·3H(2)O](2−)) and mackinawite (Fe[Ni]S), are vital—comprising precipitate membranes—as initial “free energy” conductors and converters of such disequilibria, i.e., as the initiators of a CO(2)-reducing metabolism. The fact that wet and rocky bodies in the solar system much smaller than Earth or Venus do not reach the internal pressure (≥23 GPa) requirements in their mantles sufficient for producing bridgmanite and, therefore, are too reduced to stabilize and emit CO(2)—the staple of life—may explain the apparent absence or negligible concentrations of that gas on these bodies, and thereby serves as a constraint in the search for extraterrestrial life. The astrobiological challenge then is to search for worlds that (i) are large enough to generate internal pressures such as to produce bridgmanite or (ii) boast electron acceptors, including imported CO(2), from extraterrestrial sources in their hydrospheres.
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spelling pubmed-76994182020-11-29 Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence: Olivine, Pyrrhotite, Bridgmanite, Serpentine, Fougerite and Mackinawite Russell, Michael J. Ponce, Adrian Life (Basel) Article Life cannot emerge on a planet or moon without the appropriate electrochemical disequilibria and the minerals that mediate energy-dissipative processes. Here, it is argued that four minerals, olivine ([Mg>Fe](2)SiO(4)), bridgmanite ([Mg,Fe]SiO(3)), serpentine ([Mg,Fe,](2-3)Si(2)O(5)[OH)](4)), and pyrrhotite (Fe((1−x))S), are an essential requirement in planetary bodies to produce such disequilibria and, thereby, life. Yet only two minerals, fougerite ([Fe(2+)(6x)Fe(3+)(6(x−1))O(12)H(2(7−3x))](2+)·[(CO(2−))·3H(2)O](2−)) and mackinawite (Fe[Ni]S), are vital—comprising precipitate membranes—as initial “free energy” conductors and converters of such disequilibria, i.e., as the initiators of a CO(2)-reducing metabolism. The fact that wet and rocky bodies in the solar system much smaller than Earth or Venus do not reach the internal pressure (≥23 GPa) requirements in their mantles sufficient for producing bridgmanite and, therefore, are too reduced to stabilize and emit CO(2)—the staple of life—may explain the apparent absence or negligible concentrations of that gas on these bodies, and thereby serves as a constraint in the search for extraterrestrial life. The astrobiological challenge then is to search for worlds that (i) are large enough to generate internal pressures such as to produce bridgmanite or (ii) boast electron acceptors, including imported CO(2), from extraterrestrial sources in their hydrospheres. MDPI 2020-11-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7699418/ /pubmed/33228029 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10110291 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Russell, Michael J.
Ponce, Adrian
Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence: Olivine, Pyrrhotite, Bridgmanite, Serpentine, Fougerite and Mackinawite
title Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence: Olivine, Pyrrhotite, Bridgmanite, Serpentine, Fougerite and Mackinawite
title_full Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence: Olivine, Pyrrhotite, Bridgmanite, Serpentine, Fougerite and Mackinawite
title_fullStr Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence: Olivine, Pyrrhotite, Bridgmanite, Serpentine, Fougerite and Mackinawite
title_full_unstemmed Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence: Olivine, Pyrrhotite, Bridgmanite, Serpentine, Fougerite and Mackinawite
title_short Six ‘Must-Have’ Minerals for Life’s Emergence: Olivine, Pyrrhotite, Bridgmanite, Serpentine, Fougerite and Mackinawite
title_sort six ‘must-have’ minerals for life’s emergence: olivine, pyrrhotite, bridgmanite, serpentine, fougerite and mackinawite
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7699418/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33228029
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10110291
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