How can life emerge from non-living matter? Terrestrial life is the only life we know, and is therefore the only example we have available to study. In order to determine how life on Earth came about, we first have to know when it began. Evidence thus far suggests that the origin of terrestrial life occurred sometime between ~4500 and 3700 Ma. The majority of this estimate falls within the Hadean Eon, comprising the earliest time in Earth's history.
It is difficult to gather and use all of the indredients of biology to make life. It is even more difficult to do so using only the ingredients and conditions present on the early Earth. Despite this difficulty, some pathway must exist within the overlap of productive chemistry and feasible environmental conditions.
