Scientists think they've cracked life's mysterious origin on Earth four billion years ago

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the mystery of how life came to be on our planet but, even with breakthroughs in evolutionary and biological science, Earth's greatest minds have struggled to explain how our "pale blue dot" went from an inert wet rock to one bursting with wildlife and foliage.Now, a team of US scientists believe they might have solved this problem of how life developed on Earth four billion years ago..

In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Purdue University researchers found that tiny water droplets in ocean spray, under certain conditions like hitting a cliff or rock, briefly develop chains of amino acids known as peptides - one of the crucial chemical building blocks for life.

These droplets are roughly one micron in size, or 1/70th the thickness of a human hair, and turn from inert water to a possible life-giving mixture for milliseconds as the water droplet meets the atmosphere and its chemical equilibrium shifts, briefly creating peptides on the water's surface as it meets the air. Want the latest updates on close encounters, mysterious sightings and fascinating insights from scientists ?

Sign up to the Daily Star's Spaced Out newsletter HERE. This breakthrough in evolutionary biology could not only explain how life arose on our planet, but also where and how alien life could begin on other planets under similar conditions, which could aid scientists in their search for life on other "habitable" planets.