We report the discovery of frustules of pennate diatoms embedded in a freshly fractured interior surface of the Orgueil CI1 carbonaceous meteorite. Images and element composition by Energy...

The Orgueil meteorite was studied using a TESCAN VEGA 3 scanning electron microscope. As a result, new microfossils were found, including a fragment of a pennate diatom shell, tubular structures with double porous cell walls (prasinophytes?), hollow spheres with a process (acritarchs?), and spore-like structures. The problem of the cometary origin of the Orgueil meteorite is discussed.

Some issues of the prebiological stage of evolution, including: autocombinatorics of biophilic elements and protogenome, the “RNA world”, abiogenic synthesis of prebiotic compounds, the problem of chirality and precellular compartmentalization, are considered. The data on the prevalence of organic compounds (OC) in carbonaceous chondrites, comets and outer space are presented. The existing mechanisms for the subsequent transfer of OC (cosmic dust, comets) indicate the possibility, and even the inevitability, of the formation and existence of life before its appearance on Earth.