The formation of prebiotic organic substances was a mandatory step towards the origin of life. The importance of exogenous supply versus in-situ synthesis from atmospheric gases is still a matter of debate. We experimentally demonstrate that iron-rich meteoritic and volcanic particles activate and catalyze CO fixation₂, which creates the key precursors of life's building blocks. This catalysis is robust and produces selective aldehydes, alcohols and hydrocarbons, independent of the redox state of the environment. It is supported by common minerals and tolerates a wide range of early planetary conditions (150–300 °C, ≲ 10–50 bar, humid or dry climate). We found that up to 6 × 10 ⁸ kg/year of prebiotic organic matter could be synthesized by this process on a planetary scale from atmospheric CO₂ on Hades' Earth. The formation of reactive organic molecules forming the building blocks of life on the nascent Earth is one of the prerequisites of abiogenesis. The formation of a stable continental crust and liquid water on Earth at ~ 4. 4 Gyr ago, and the earliest signatures of biogenic carbon isotopes at ~ 3 . 8 – 4 . 1 Gyr ago suggests that life only arose ∼ 400-700 million years after the formation of the Earth. This relatively short time span suggests that a large fraction of the organic precursors had already formed on the Hadean Earth as early as 4.4 Gyr. One possibility is that prebiotic organics that formed in the solar nebula, carbon-rich asteroids, and comets were delivered to the early Earth. Other theories consider synthesis in the atmosphere and ocean by catalytic or high-energy processes (lightning, volcanic energy, impact shocks). (Sophia Peters, Dmitry A. Semenov, Rupert Hochleitner and Oliver Trapp, Nature)

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