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Letter

Nature Geoscience 2, 62–66 (1 January 2009) | doi:10.1038/ngeo383

Biomolecule formation by oceanic impacts on early Earth

Yoshihiro Furukawa , Toshimori Sekine , Masahiro Oba , Takeshi Kakegawa & Hiromoto Nakazawa

Intense impacts of extraterrestrial objects melted the embryonic Earth, forming an inorganic body with a carbon-dioxide- and nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Certain simple organic molecules have been shown to form under conditions resembling meteorite impacts, although the link between these events and the development of more complex molecules remains unclear.