The research was carried out by scientists from Finland, France and the Netherlands, under the coordination of a team from the University of Liège in Belgium.

Early in the lifetime of our solar system, the newly created planets were bombarded by comets with nuclei composed of ice and dust. For decades, many scientists have suggested that the water and other organic molecules necessary for the emergence of life on earth may have originated from such impacts. Furthermore, it was felt that those comets that escaped such collisions and survived to the present day would provide a clear picture of the prevailing physio-chemical conditions some 4.6 billion years ago.

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