The Enigma of the Origin of Life and Its Timing MINI- REVIEW Martin A
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Modelling Panspermia in the TRAPPIST-1 System
October 13, 2017 Modelling panspermia in the TRAPPIST-1 system James A. Blake1,2*, David J. Armstrong1,2, Dimitri Veras1,2 Abstract The recent ground-breaking discovery of seven temperate planets within the TRAPPIST-1 system has been hailed as a milestone in the development of exoplanetary science. Centred on an ultra-cool dwarf star, the planets all orbit within a sixth of the distance from Mercury to the Sun. This remarkably compact nature makes the system an ideal testbed for the modelling of rapid lithopanspermia, the idea that micro-organisms can be distributed throughout the Universe via fragments of rock ejected during a meteoric impact event. We perform N-body simulations to investigate the timescale and success-rate of lithopanspermia within TRAPPIST-1. In each simulation, test particles are ejected from one of the three planets thought to lie within the so-called ‘habitable zone’ of the star into a range of allowed orbits, constrained by the ejection velocity and coplanarity of the case in question. The irradiance received by the test particles is tracked throughout the simulation, allowing the overall radiant exposure to be calculated for each one at the close of its journey. A simultaneous in-depth review of space microbiological literature has enabled inferences to be made regarding the potential survivability of lithopanspermia in compact exoplanetary systems. 1Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL 2Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL *Corresponding author: [email protected] Contents Universe, and can propagate from one location to another. This interpretation owes itself predominantly to the works of William 1 Introduction1 Thompson (Lord Kelvin) and Hermann von Helmholtz in the 1.1 Mechanisms for panspermia...............2 latter half of the 19th Century. -
Exploring Biogenic Dispersion Inside Star Clusters with System Dynamics Modeling
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 12 October 2020 doi:10.20944/preprints202010.0232.v1 Exploring Biogenic Dispersion Inside Star Clusters with System Dynamics Modeling Authors Javier D. Burgos. Corporación para la Investigacion e Innovación -CIINAS. Contact: [email protected] Diana C. Sierra. Corporación para la Investigacion e Innovación -CIINAS; Bogotá, Colombia. Contact: [email protected] Abstract The discovery of a growing number of exoplanets and even extrasolar systems supports the scientific consensus that it is possible to find other signs of life in the universe. The present work proposes for the first time, an explicit mechanism inspired by the dynamics of biological dispersion, widely used in ecology and epidemiology, to study the dispersion of biogenic units, interpreted as complex organic molecules, between rocky or water exoplanets (habitats) located inside star clusters. The 3 results of the dynamic simulation suggest that for clusters with populations lower than 4 M/ly it is not possible to obtain biogenic worlds after 5 Gyr. Above this population size, biogenic dispersion seems to follow a power law, the larger the density of worlds lesser will be the impact rate (훽.) value to obtain at least one viable biogenic Carrier habitat after 5 Gyr. Finally, when we investigate scenarios by varying β, a well-defined set of density intervals can be defined in accordance to its characteristic β value, suggesting that biogenic dispersion has a behavior of “minimal infective dose” of “minimal biogenic effective” events by interval i.e. once this dose has been achieved, doesn’t matter if additional biogenic impact events occur on the habitat. -
Problems with Panspermia Or Extraterrestrial Origin of Life Scenarios As Found on the IDEA Center Website At
Problems with Panspermia or Extraterrestrial Origin of Life Scenarios As found on the IDEA Center website at http://www.ideacenter.org Panspermia is the theory that microorganisms or biochemical compounds from outer space are responsible for originating life on Earth and possibly in other parts of the universe where suitable atmospheric conditions exist. Essentially, it is a hypothesis which states that life on earth came from outer space. It has been popularized in countless science fiction works, however some scientists, including the discoverer of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick, have advocated panspermia. There are generally about 3 different "flavors" of panspermia: 1. Naturalistic Panspermia where life evolves on another planet, and naturally gets ejected off the planet and come to rest on earth. 2. Directed Panspermia where intelligent life on other planets intentionally seeded other planets with their own form of life. 3. Intelligent Design Panspermia, where intelligent beings from another planet came to earth and designed life here. Each type of panspermia will be briefly discussed below: 1. Naturalistic Panspermia where life evolves on another planet, and naturally gets ejected off the planet and come to rest on earth. Naturalistic panspermia has gained popularity because some have recognized that life on earth appears very soon after the origin of conditions which would allow it to exist. Many scientists believed that if life had originated on earth it would have taken many hundreds of millions, or even billions of years to do so. Life appears perhaps less than 200 million after the origin of conditions at which life could exist. -
On Mautner-Type Probability of Capture of Intergalactic Meteor Particles by Habitable Exoplanets
Article On Mautner-Type Probability of Capture of Intergalactic Meteor Particles by Habitable Exoplanets Andjelka B. Kovaˇcevi´c Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia; [email protected] Received: 28 June 2019; Accepted: 10 July 2019; Published: 9 August 2019 First Version Published: 15 July 2019 (doi:10.3390/sci1020041) Second Version Published: 9 August 2019 (doi:10.3390/sci1020047) Abstract: Both macro and microprojectiles (e.g., interplanetary, interstellar and even intergalactic material) are seen as important vehicles for the exchange of potential (bio)material within our solar system as well as between stellar systems in our Galaxy. Accordingly, this requires estimates of the impact probabilities for different source populations of projectiles, including for intergalactic meteor particles which have received relatively little attention since considered as rare events (discrete occurrences that are statistically improbable due to their very infrequent appearance). We employ the simple but yet comprehensive model of intergalactic microprojectile capture by the gravity of exoplanets which enables us to estimate the map of collisional probabilities for an available sample of exoplanets in habitable zones around host stars. The model includes a dynamical description of the capture adopted from Mautner model of interstellar exchange of microparticles and changed for our purposes. We use statistical and information metrics to calculate probability map of intergalactic meteorite particle capture. Moreover, by calculating the entropy index map we measure the concentration of these rare events. We further adopted a model from immigration theory, to show that the transient distribution of birth/death/immigration of material for the simplest case has a high value. -
Moral Obligation' to Seed Universe with Life 9 February 2010, by Lisa Zyga
Professor: We have a 'moral obligation' to seed universe with life 9 February 2010, by Lisa Zyga life to other solar systems which can be transformed via microbial activity, thereby preparing these worlds to develop and sustain complex life,” Mautner explained to PhysOrg.com. “Securing that future for life can give our human existence a cosmic purpose.” As Mautner explains in his study published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Cosmology, the strategy is to deposit an array of primitive Directed panspermia missions could target interstellar clouds such as the Rho Ophiuchus cloud complex organisms on potentially fertile planets and located about 500 light-years away. This view spans protoplanets throughout the universe. Like the about five light-years across. The false-color image is earliest life on Earth, organisms such as taken from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: NASA. cyanobacteria could seed other planets, digest toxic gases (such as ammonia and carbon dioxide on early Earth) and release products such as oxygen which promote the evolution of more (PhysOrg.com) -- Eventually, the day will come complex species. To increase their chances of when life on Earth ends. Whether that’s tomorrow success, the microbial payloads should contain a or five billion years from now, whether by nuclear variety of organisms with various environmental war, climate change, or the Sun burning up its fuel, tolerances, and hardy multicellular organisms such the last living cell on Earth will one day wither and as rotifer eggs to jumpstart higher evolution. These die. But that doesn’t mean that all is lost. -
Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial Or Cosmic?
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology xxx (2018) 1e21 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pbiomolbio Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic? * Edward J. Steele a, j, , Shirwan Al-Mufti b, Kenneth A. Augustyn c, Rohana Chandrajith d, John P. Coghlan e, S.G. Coulson b, Sudipto Ghosh f, Mark Gillman g, Reginald M. Gorczynski h, Brig Klyce b, Godfrey Louis i, Kithsiri Mahanama j, Keith R. Oliver k, Julio Padron l, Jiangwen Qu m, John A. Schuster n, W.E. Smith o, Duane P. Snyder b, Julian A. Steele p, Brent J. Stewart a, Robert Temple q, Gensuke Tokoro o, Christopher A. Tout r, Alexander Unzicker s, Milton Wainwright b, j, Jamie Wallis b, Daryl H. Wallis b, Max K. Wallis b, John Wetherall t, D.T. Wickramasinghe u, J.T. Wickramasinghe b, N. Chandra Wickramasinghe b, j, o, Yongsheng Liu v, w a CY O'Connor ERADE Village Foundation, Piara Waters, WA, Australia b Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK c Center for the Physics of Living Organisms, Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Michigan, United States d Department of Geology, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka e University of Melbourne, Office of the Dean, Faculty Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, 3rd Level, Alan Gilbert Building, Australia f Metallurgical & Materials Engineering IIT, Kanpur, India g South African Brain Research Institute, 6 Campbell Street, Waverly, Johannesburg, South Africa h University Toronto -
Directed Panspermia Synthetic DNA in Bioforming Planets
Physical Sciences ︱ Roy Sleator & Niall Smith Directed Panspermia Synthetic DNA in bioforming planets As our technological nter-planetary travel. Terraforming. their atmospheric and surface conditions. advancements continue, Synthetic DNA. These all sound like Astrobiology brings these two focuses scientists are beginning to Iplot points from classic science fiction together as researchers look at the origins turn what was science fiction novels, but everyday science is closing the of life on Earth, as well as looking for into reality. Concepts such as gap between concepts that were once evidence of life on other planets. terraforming and travel between reserved for fantasy and research marking stars are becoming more the boundaries of human development. Prof Roy Sleator is a molecular biologist achievable, giving life to the The idea that humanity might one day at the Cork Institute of Technology in dream that one day we might leave Earth and colonise planets across Ireland. He works together with Dr Niall colonise other planets. Directed the galaxy is an inspirational dream that Smith, astrophysicist at Blackrock Castle panspermia is one method of is rapidly becoming a reality, thanks to Observatory, and the researchers are altering a hostile, uninhabited the cutting-edge developments across a particularly interested in planets beyond Chances are slim to find a planet with perfect conditions planet to a more Earth-like to host human life. Therefore, scientists study bioforming: variety of scientific disciplines. our solar system that may support life. As the seeding of a planet with life. environment, and Cork Institute Earth’s population grows and resources of Technology’s Professor Roy One such discipline is astrobiology, which become stretched, scientists are looking Sleator and Dr Niall Smith is the intersection of biology and physics. -
Aliens!!! We Have One Data Point: No One Has Ever Detected an Alien
Aliens!!! We have one data point: no one has ever detected an alien: 1. No personal contact 2. No detection of alien ships/artifacts on Earth or elsewhere 3. No detection of signals of extraterrestrial origin Can we ask any scientific questions about aliens? A gray area between science and science fiction 1. Can we estimate the likelihood of alien life? 2. How might extraterrestrial life adapt to extreme environments? Estimating the abundance of alien life: A “back of the envelope calculation” or a “Fermi Problem” How much coal would it take to power the US for a year? How many air travellers are in the air right now? How many piano tuners are there in Chicago? The original Fermi Problem: How many piano tuners live in Chicago? How many people live in Chicago? 9 million How many households in Chicago? 4.5 million (2 people per household) How many households have pianos that get tuned regularly? (1 out of 20) = 225,000 tunings per year A typical work year is 2000 hours, and it takes about 2 hours to tune a piano, so a piano tuner does 1000 tunings in a year. So Chicago employs about 200 piano tuners How many aliens are there?? 1. How many stars are in the galaxy? 2. How many of these stars have planets? 3. How many planets develop life? 4. How many planets with life develop intelligent life? 5. How many of the intelligent aliens will broadcast their existence? The (in)famous Drake Equation: N = R* · fp · ne · fl · fi · fc · L If intelligent life is common, where are all the aliens? The “Fermi paradox” Solutions to the Fermi Paradox: 1. -
Biological Evidence Against the Panspermia Theory Massimo Di Giulio
Biological evidence against the panspermia theory Massimo Di Giulio To cite this version: Massimo Di Giulio. Biological evidence against the panspermia theory. Journal of Theoretical Biology, Elsevier, 2010, 266 (4), pp.569. 10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.07.017. hal-00620582 HAL Id: hal-00620582 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00620582 Submitted on 8 Sep 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Author’s Accepted Manuscript Biological evidence against the panspermia theory Massimo Di Giulio PII: S0022-5193(10)00374-7 DOI: doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.07.017 Reference: YJTBI6079 To appear in: Journal of Theoretical Biology www.elsevier.com/locate/yjtbi Received date: 3 June 2010 Revised date: 8 July 2010 Accepted date: 19 July 2010 Cite this article as: Massimo Di Giulio, Biological evidence against the panspermia theory, Journal of Theoretical Biology, doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.07.017 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. -
Heavenly Insemination Hugh Montefiore
496 Spring Books Supplement Nature Vol. 296 8 April 1982 Heavenly insemination Hugh Montefiore I SUPPOSE that it is no more strange that an Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature. By some sense, the origin of life appears at the outstanding biologist such as Francis Crick Francis Crick. Pp.192. UK ISBN moment to be almost a miracle. should give his views on cosmology than 0-356-07736-5; US ISBN 0-671-25562-2. I wonder, however, whether Crick's view that a distinguished astronomer such as (Macdonald/Simon and Schuster: 1982.) will continue to prevail that "it seems Fred Hoyle should pronounce on £7 .95, $13.95. almost impossible to give any numerical molecular biology. To an outsider, these value to the probability of what seems a are both welcome pointers towards an inte decide how life originated''. rather unlikely sequence of events'' leading gration of the sciences. So perhaps it was A small measure of support for Directed to the emergence of life. In· any case the not outrageously odd to give Crick's book Panspermia is seen in the almost uniform really fundamental problems remain to be to a theologian for review; but he must nature of the genetic code. Some factors, solved; how DNA, RNA and enzymes were walk warily on alien territory. however, Crick does not consider; for originally formed, and how the first cell, Crick writes ostensibly to answer Enrico example, the origin of some bacteria with with its reproductive mechanism, came Fermi's famous question, "If there are properties which seem unlikely to have into existence. -
Anthropic Principle, Panspermia, and Fermi Paradox
Diversity of Habitable planets: anthropic principle, panspermia, and Fermi Paradox Douglas N.C. Lin Dept of Astronomy & Astrophysics, UC Santa Cruz Kavli InsAtute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, Peking University Earth-Life Science InsAtute: First Internaonal Symposium Tokyo InsAtute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan. 3.30.2013 19 slides Anthropic Principle Brandon Carter 1983 • Astrophysical and cosmological theorists run the risk of error in the interpretaon of astronomical and cosmological informaon unless due account is taken of the biological restraints under which the informaon was acquired. (Strong Anthropic Principle) • Biological theorists also run the risk of error in the interpretaon of the evoluAonary records unless they take due heed of the astrophysical restraints under which evolu4on took place. (Weak Anthropic Principle). 3/19 RV surveys: kinemac diversity 3/19 Gas giants: ubiquity 4/19 Transit surveys: size distribuAon 5/19 Structural diversity Ikoma 6/19 SequenAal assemblage of planets Paradigm a) natural and robust outcome => planets are common shis: b) compeAng processes => planetary diversity c) mobility => planetary systems’ probabilisAc desAnies 7/19 d) changing boundary condiAons => evolving habitable zones Super Earths: some key issues • Did super Earths assemble in situ or form at large a and migrate? Ida 8/19 Migra4on of a Super Earth in protostellar disk around a magnezed T Tauri star. The Super Earth: (a) grows & migrate inward to inner-edge; (b) migrates slightly outwards with the expanding disk inner edge; (c) halts migrang aer gas is mostly depleted. (Ju et al 2013 in preparaon) To model P distribuAon KIAA undergraduate of Kepler’s new-found student Ju Wenhua planetary candidates. -
Postanje - Povezivanje Nauke I Biblije” (U PDF Formatu) Učinili Smo Besplatno Dostupnom Na Internetu, Za Ličnu POSTANJE (Nekomercijalnu) Upotrebu
Arijel Rot Elektronsku verziju knjige “Postanje - povezivanje nauke i Biblije” (u PDF formatu) učinili smo besplatno dostupnom na Internetu, za ličnu POSTANJE (nekomercijalnu) upotrebu. - povezivanje nauke i Biblije - Ukoliko želite da nabavite ovu knjigu u štampanom obliku, poručite je telefonom, na broj 062/200-046 Izdavač Naslov originala: Or i gi Ns: Li Nki Ng sc i eNc e aNd sc r i pt ur e by ariel a. r oth Predgovor Neki smatraju pokušaj povezivanja nauke i Biblije nemogućim zadatkom. Ova knjiga dovodi u pitanje tu “nemogućnost”. Ovo je pokušaj da se pokaže da razdvojenost između nauke i Biblije nije ono što se često pretpostavlja da jeste, i da postoji razuman sklad između njih. u raspravama o istinitosti nauke i Biblije pažnja se često usredsređuje na neku posebnu temu, kao na primer: pitanje kako je život mogao nastati sam od sebe, ili pitanje autentičnosti izveštaja o stvaranju koji je zapisan u Bibliji. Međutim, pitanje porekla je veoma široko i bavi se počecima gotovo svega. Ovako kompleksan problem zahteva široku analizu i procenu. Ova knjiga je pokušaj da se dâ uvid u tu širu sliku. Često verujemo usko specijalizovanim stručnjacima koji veruju drugim usko specijalizovanim stručnjacima, od kojih su svi zasnovali svoj “pogled na svet” na preovlađujućim stavovima, a da nisu imali šansu da procene tu širu sliku koju mi tako često prihvatamo. suviše često izvlačimo preširoke zaključke iz jedne uske baze podataka, nesvesni da smo pristrasno isključivi. sociolog posmatra grad iz drugačije perspektive nego arhitekta, pa ipak, obojica vide celokupnu sliku. t rudio sam se da izvršim “specijalizaciju” na sveobuhvatniji način, procenjujući razna tumačenja na osnovu naučnih činjenica i na osnovu Biblije.