HOUSTON — Most of Earth's vital elements for life mostly likely came from a planetary collision that also created the moon more than 4.4 billion years ago, according to a Rice University study published in the journal Science Advances. <br /><br />For life to occur on a planet, volatile elements including carbon, nitrogen and sulfur must be present. <br /><br />According to the study, a catastrophic collision between Earth while it was still forming and a Mars-sized object with volatile elements could explain how these elements were introduced. <br />Researchers used a combination of high-temperature, high-pressure experiments to mimic these conditions in the lab. <br /><br />The results were then fed into computer simulations that were able to determine the size and chemical composition of the impacting planet. <br /><br />The team conclude that Earth's volatiles arrived from a collision with an embryonic planet that had a sulfur-rich core.
