scholarly journals The Rise of A Habitable Planet: Four Required Conditions for the Origin of Life in the Universe

Geosciences ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kompanichenko
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Intermediate State ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Intermediate Stage ◽  
Continuous Response ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
Habitable Planet ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Environments ◽  
The Universe

The advanced version of the author’s inversion concept of the origin of terrestrial life and its application for life in the Universe has been substantiated. A key step in the transition to life consists in the thermodynamic inversion of non-living prebiotic microsystems when the contributions of free energy (F) and information (I) become prevalent over the contribution of entropy (S). It is based the thermodynamic corridor that is mandatory for all chemical scenarios for the origin of life: F + I < S (prebiotic microsystem) → F + I ≈ S (intermediate stage, inversion moment) → F + I > S (primary living unit). A prebiotic organic microsystem can reach the intermediate state between non-life and life only under high-frequency and multilevel oscillations of physic-chemical parameters in hydrothermal environments. The oscillations are considered the fourth required condition for the origin of life, in addition to the three well-known ones: the availability of organic matter, an aqueous medium, and a source of energy. The emergence of initial life sparks in nonequilibrium prebiotic microsystems (being at the intermediate state) proceeds through the continuous response (counteraction) of prebiotic microsystems to incessant physic-chemical oscillations (stress). The next step of laboratory simulations on the origin of life directed to the exploration of the microsystems’ response to high-frequency oscillations (>10−10 s–<30 min) is proposed. Finally, some fragments of the general scenario of the origin of life in the Universe based on the whole four required conditions have been outlined.

The Origin of Life on Earth and in the Universe

2006 ◽  
pp. 147-198
Author(s):  
Jordi Llorca ◽  
Malcolm E. Schrader ◽  
Pasquale Stano ◽  
Francesca Ferri ◽  
Pier Luigi Luisi
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe

scholarly journals The origin of life from primordial planets

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl H. Gibson ◽  
Rudolph E. Schild ◽  
N. Chandra Wickramasinghe
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Space Telescopes ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Primordial Planets ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
Primordial Soup ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Origin Of The Universe

AbstractThe origin of life and the origin of the Universe are among the most important problems of science and they might be inextricably linked. Hydro-gravitational-dynamics cosmology predicts hydrogen–helium gas planets in clumps as the dark matter of galaxies, with millions of planets per star. This unexpected prediction is supported by quasar microlensing of a galaxy and a flood of new data from space telescopes. Supernovae from stellar over-accretion of planets produce the chemicals (C, N, O, P, etc.) and abundant liquid-water domains required for first life and the means for wide scattering of life prototypes. Life originated following the plasma-to-gas transition between 2 and 20 Myr after the big bang, while planetary core oceans were between critical and freezing temperatures, and interchanges of material between planets constituted essentially a cosmological primordial soup. Images from optical, radio and infrared space telescopes suggest life on Earth was neither first nor inevitable.

scholarly journals Search for water and life's building blocks in the universe: A summary

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 436-440
Author(s):  
Edwin A. Bergin
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Radioactive Decay ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Universe

AbstractWater and organics need to be supplied to terrestrial worlds like our own to provide the essential compounds required for the origin of life. These molecules form initially during the earliest stages of stellar birth, are supplied by collapse to the planet-forming disk predominantly as ice, and may undergo significant processing during this collapse and within large planetesimals that are heated via radioactive decay. Water and organic carriers can be quite volatile, thus their survival as ices within rocks is not preordained. In this focus meeting our goal is to bring together astronomers, cosmochemists, planetary scientists, chemical physicists, and spectroscopists who each explore individual aspects of this problem. In this summary we discuss some of the main themes that appeared in the meeting. Ultimately, cross-field collaboration is needed to provide greater understanding of the likelihood that terrestrial worlds form with these key compounds readily available on their surfaces – and are hence habitable if present at the right distance from the star.

scholarly journals Defining Lyfe in the Universe: From Three Privileged Functions to Four Pillars

Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Bartlett ◽  
Michael L. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Classification System ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
New Classification ◽  
General Picture ◽  
Living State ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Dynamical Order

Motivated by the need to paint a more general picture of what life is—and could be—with respect to the rest of the phenomena of the universe, we propose a new vocabulary for astrobiological research. Lyfe is defined as any system that fulfills all four processes of the living state, namely: dissipation, autocatalysis, homeostasis, and learning. Life is defined as the instance of lyfe that we are familiar with on Earth, one that uses a specific organometallic molecular toolbox to record information about its environment and achieve dynamical order by dissipating certain planetary disequilibria. This new classification system allows the astrobiological community to more clearly define the questions that propel their research—e.g., whether they are developing a historical narrative to explain the origin of life (on Earth), or a universal narrative for the emergence of lyfe, or whether they are seeking signs of life specifically, or lyfe at large across the universe. While the concept of “life as we don’t know it” is not new, the four pillars of lyfe offer a novel perspective on the living state that is indifferent to the particular components that might produce it.

Searching for a shadow biosphere on Earth as a test of the ‘cosmic imperative’

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1936) ◽  
pp. 624-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. W. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Observable Universe ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Absence Of Evidence ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Second Genesis

Estimates for the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy, based on the so-called Drake equation, are meaningless without a plausible estimate for the probability that life will emerge on an Earth-like planet. In the absence of a theory of the origin of life, that number can be anywhere from 0 to 1. Distinguished scientists have been known to argue that life on Earth is a freak accident, unique in the observable universe and, conversely, that life is almost bound to arise in the course of time, given Earth-like conditions. De Duve, adopting the latter position, coined the phrase that ‘life is a cosmic imperative’. De Duve’s position would be immediately verified if we were to discover a second sample of life that we could be sure arose from scratch independently of known life. Given the current absence of evidence for life beyond Earth, the best way to test the hypothesis of the cosmic imperative is to see whether terrestrial life began more than once. If it did, it is possible that descendants of a second genesis might be extant, forming a sort of ‘shadow biosphere’ existing alongside, or perhaps interpenetrating, the known biosphere. I outline a strategy to detect the existence of such a shadow biosphere.

scholarly journals Astrobiology: Towards an Understanding of the Emergence of Life in the Universe

2004 ◽  
Vol 213 ◽  
pp. 245-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Lazcano
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Spontaneous Generation ◽  
Terrestrial Environment ◽  
Random Events ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Emergence Of Life ◽  
Considerable Detail ◽  
The Universe

Long before the idea of spontaneous generation was incorporated by JeanBaptiste de Lamarck into evolutionary biology to explain the first emergence of life, the possibility that other planets were inhabited had been discussed, sometimes in considerable detail, by scientists and philosophers alike (Lazcano 2001). More often than not, these were speculations that rested on the idea of a uniform universe but with little or no empirical basis. Today our approaches to the issue of life in the Universe have changed dramatically; neither the formation of planets nor the origin of life are seen as the result of inscrutable random events, but rather as natural outcomes of evolutionary events. The interconnection between these two processes is evident: understanding the formation of planets has major implications for our understanding of the early terrestrial environment, and therefore for the origin of living systems.

scholarly journals Biological Implications of Organic Compounds in Comets

1989 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 439-462
Author(s):  
Joseph N. Marcus ◽  
Margaret A. Olsen
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Catalytic Rna ◽  
Organic Chemicals ◽  
Substantial Fraction ◽  
Volatile Elements ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Cometary Panspermia ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe

AbstractOrganic chemicals — compounds that contain carbon — are the substance of life and pervade the universe. Is there a connection between comets, which are rich in prebiotic organics, and the origin of life? Current concepts of biomolecular evolution are first reviewed, including the important paradigm of catalytic RNA. At the very least, impacting comets appear to have supplied a substantial fraction of the volatile elements required for life shortly after the Earth formed. Some impacting material may even have survived chemically intact to directly provide necessary complex prebiotic organic chemicals. For life to originate and evolve in comets themselves, liquid H2O would be absolutely required: arguments for and against 26Al radiogenic melting of cometary cores are presented. Cometary panspermia, if theoretically possible, is not necessary to explain the origin of life on Earth. The Halley spacecraft provide evidence against Earth-type microorganisms in this comet’s dust.

Life as a cosmic imperative?

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1936) ◽  
pp. 620-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian de Duve
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Extrasolar Planet ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
Probable Site ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Chemical Conditions ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Two Stages

The origin of life on Earth may be divided into two stages separated by the first appearance of replicable molecules, most probably of RNA. The first stage depended exclusively on chemistry. The second stage likewise involved chemistry, but with the additional participation of selection, a necessary concomitant of inevitable replication accidents. Consideration of these two processes suggests that the origin of life may have been close to obligatory under the physical–chemical conditions that prevailed at the site of its birth. Thus, an extrasolar planet in which those conditions were replicated appears as a probable site for the appearance of extra-terrestrial life.

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