Subject: probability of advanced life forms may depend on age of habitable exoplanets
When evaluating the habitable exoplanets for potentially advanced civilizations we should be taking into consideration the age of the solar system they are a part of.
The older the sun around wch a habitable exoplanet is orbiting the longer the time life has had to evolve to a more complex state of organization.
We already know that it took 4.5 billion years(the age of our solar system) for life on earth to reach its current stage of developement.
We can therefore speculate (assuming that evolution has followed a similar time sequence throughout the universe) that organisms or life forms more advanced than humans could only exist on exoplanits that are a part of a solar system that is older than our own.
Exoplanits that are a part of a solar system that is younger than our own
would presumably not had time to have evolved life beyond a primitive stage of developement.
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It is no doubt an. oversimplification to assume that yhe time it took for life to emerge on planet earth and the. subsequent rate of evolution toward ever more. complex biologiical organisms would be the same everywhere throughout the univrrse.
Planetary systems more hospitable to life would have seen the emergence. of single-celled creatures sooner than ocurred on earth and their rate of mutation and natursl selection may have proceeded more rapidlly ,uninterupted by numerous extinction events.
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Descriptions from the book of Genesis and the Big Bang theory share remarkable similarities in everything springing forth from nothingness. Darwin's theory of evolution is compelling yet, it doesn't account for what started the spark of life-- the transformation of inanimate matter into the first vibrant living creature.
The essential requirements for life are "finely tuned" in our universe, including stars providing energy and the right atoms, a suitable habitat like the Earth, and a recipe for assembling and sustaining life.
The odds are very close to zero that this situation ocurred spontaneously with any degree of frequency.
Perhaps even primitive forms of life are extremely rare elsewhere in the universe?
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ReplyDeleteH2O seems to be a common molecule in the univverse.
If presence of water is s necessary condition for life, its widespresd occurrence bodes well for the widespread occcurrence of life tnroughoiut the universe!
if all living creatures(life forms) in the universe are made of the same atomic/elemental ingredients, and shaped by the same universal laws of physics and chemistry, it seems probable that life emerged spontaneously in many places throughout the universe.
ReplyDeleteSince the laws of chemistry are the same throughout the universe
it is likely that the rules/forces governing the aggregation of atoms into complex organic molecules have enabled the spontaneous synthesis of organic macromolecules wch are the necessary precursors to cellular life.
if amino acids and nucleic acids can spontaneously aggregate and assemble into complex biological structures such as living cells, why has this process not been demonstrated under laboratory conditions?
ReplyDeleteSome researchers are worki ng to bridge the chasm between inanimate molecules and live cells:
ReplyDeleteorigin of life researcher,Sam Sinai:
https://www.quora.com/profile/Sam-Sinai
ReplyDeleteThe Demon in the Machine
by Paul Davies
This book tries to answer some of humankind’s biggest questions, including the nature of life, how and why it emerges, and what distinguishes the living from the non-living.
Far from being overwhelmed by tacking these most fundamental of questions, in the book Davies explains how matter (living and otherwise), information and entropy interact.
Is there an abundance of life in the universe?
ReplyDeletenumber one reason for believing there could be an abundance of life in our universe, even intelligent life, is the incredible abundance of solar/planetary systems.
The latest estimates indicate that one out of every five or six stars has a planet similar to Earth in a habitable zone.
That means there's close to 100 billion such planets that might be like our Earth... in our galaxy alone
Is this signal coming from a natural or an intelligent source?
ReplyDeletehttps://globalnews.ca/news/6530585/repeating-fast-radio-burst-pattern/
The mystery of fast sound bursts probably has a natural explanation:
ReplyDeleteBy Tim Binnall
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/astronomers-find-fast-radio-burst-that-follows-a-16-day-pattern/
The ongoing quest to decipher the mystery of fast radio bursts may have taken a considerable step forward as astronomers have found one such pulse that seems to follow a rather distinct pattern. The enigmatic and incredibly brief bursts of energy, also known as FRBs for short, have been the subject of serious scientific inquiry since they were first detected back in 2007. In the ensuing years, astronomers intrigued by the pulses have managed to find several more of them, including a total of ten bursts that are repeating. And now a new study of one specific recurring FRB has reportedly yielded another possible insight into what may be causing the phenomenon, which is a question that has so far has been a mystery to scientists. Detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment telescope last year, the pulse was found to occur around twice every hour over the course of four days, followed by twelve days of silence before the pattern began again. While this may seem like something of a mundane observation, scientists say that the discovery is a fairly significant clue. Based on the way in which the pattern unfolds, astronomers postulate that the pulse may be coming from some celestial body that is orbiting something which obscures the bursts during those twelve days of silence. Other possible explanations put forward by researchers are that the repeating signal is coming from a spinning object or stellar winds are somehow involved in causing the patterns. Unfortunately, until astronomers are able to identify precisely what object is the source of the bursts, the answer to the mystery is merely a matter of conjecture