OREANDA-NEWS. According to a study published in the journal Geology, excerpts from which are cited by RG.ru, on the rocks of the Dead Sea Basin, a group of researchers from St. Petersburg State University discovered natural cyclophosphates. These are the precursors of phosphorus-containing molecules, scientists believe that it was with them that the formation of life on Earth could begin. They are the first to be discovered in nature.

According to the press service of St. Petersburg State University, cyclophosphates are actively used in industry, when their structure is destroyed, energy is released, causing the synthesis of organophosphates. Therefore, many scientific schools believe that it was with cyclophosphates billions of years ago that the origin of life began on our planet.

For the needs of industry, these substances are synthesized in laboratories, and now scientists are wondering how cyclosphates could be formed in the natural environment. There are two versions so far. In particular, the Dead Sea basin belongs to the zones of geothermal activity, billions of years ago it was very hot here and cyclophosphates could have been formed during the next cycle of reactions. The second version is meteorites. Passing through the dense layers of the Earth's atmosphere, space bodies heat up, high-temperature chemical reactions take place on their surfaces, and it is possible that cyclophosphates appeared during some of them.

Scientists also believe that billions of years ago, phosphides were widespread on Earth, these are phosphorus compounds that do not contain oxygen. And when the planet began to be saturated with oxygen, then due to oxidative reactions in different regions of our planet, cyclophosphates began to form from phosphides.