Life may have been possible in Earth’s earliest, most hellish eon
New analyses suggest heat caused by asteroid bombardment didn’t sterilize the planet
![illustration of hellscape](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/011918_cg_hadeonnothellhole_feat.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
FIERY MYTH Scientists have long thought that Earth was a sterile hellscape during its earliest eon (illustrated), due to asteroid bombardment. But the heat from those impacts wasn’t too much for life to exist, new research indicates.
Dan Durda/Southwest Research Institute