Impacts may have aided origin of life.

The article discusses a study by David Nesvorný and colleagues in the December 8, 2014 issue of the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" that suggests the energy produced by impacts of asteroids and comets could have produced RNA nucleobases necessary for life on Earth. The team zapped the nitrogen-containing compound formamide with a laser and found that the resulting radicals created 2,3-diaminomaleonitrile, which went on to form RNA nucleobases.