Experimental And Numerical Modeling Of Liposome Congregation In Meteorite Craters Of Early Earth

This paper provides experimental and numerical evidence supporting the occurrence of liposome congregation at the floors of meteor craters on Early Earth.

This work builds on our earlier research, which demonstrated that liposomes submerged in a shallow Archean pond are protected from harmful UV radiation.

This protection allows them to survive long enough for autocatalytic replication of amphiphiles and for mutation and selection of assemblies that maximize membrane stability.

For liposomes to fuse, grow, exchange contents and membranes, and divide, they need to establish a population, which means forming a dense conglomerate that enables close physical contact.

The study demonstrates that such a congregation is feasible in bowl-shaped meteor craters on Early Earth, especially under periodic seismic disturbances.

Vladimir M. Subbotin, Benjamin A. Turner, Brian A. Davies, Alric G. Lopez, Gennady Fiksel

Comments: 6 pages, 7 figures
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)
Cite as: arXiv:2602.18510 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2602.18510v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.18510
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Submission history
From: Vladimir Subbotin
[v1] Thu, 19 Feb 2026 01:27:21 UTC (5,503 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.18510
Astrobiology,