Top stories: The origin of life, the galaxy’s oldest solar system, and interspecies interbreeding

Science ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghna Sachdev
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Prospects for Life on Other Planets

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Extraterrestrial Life ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Planetary Bodies ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Alternative Scenarios

This book describes a hypothetical process in which populations of protocells can spontaneously assemble and begin to grow and proliferate by energy- dependent polymerization. This might seem to be just an academic question pursued by a few dozen researchers as a matter of curiosity, but in the past three decades advances in engineering have reached a point where both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) routinely send spacecraft to other planetary objects in our solar system. A major question being pursued is whether life has emerged elsewhere than on Earth. The limited funds available to support such missions require decisions to be made about target priorities that are guided by judgment calls. These in turn depend on plausible scenarios related to the origin of life on habitable planetary surfaces. We know that other planetary bodies in our solar system have had or do have conditions that would permit microbial life to exist and perhaps even to begin. By a remarkable coincidence, the two most promising objects for extraterrestrial life happen to represent the two alternative scenarios described in this book: An origin of life in conditions of hydrothermal vents or an origin in hydrothermal fields. This final chapter will explore how these alternative views can guide our judgment about where to send future space missions designed as life-detection missions. Questions to be addressed: What is meant by habitability? Which planetary bodies are plausible sites for the origin of life? How do the hypotheses described in this book relate to those sites? There is healthy public interest in how life begins and whether it exists elsewhere in our solar system or on the myriad exoplanets now known to orbit other stars. This has fueled a series of films, television programs, and science fiction novels. Most of these feature extrapolations to intelligent life but a few, such as The Andromeda Strain, explore what might happen if a pathogenic organism from space began to spread to the human population. There is a serious and sustained scientific effort—SETI, or Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence—devoted to finding an answer to this question.

scholarly journals Commission 51: Bioastronomy – Search for Extraterrestrial Life

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (T26A) ◽  
pp. 171-174
Author(s):  
Karen Meech ◽  
Alan Boss ◽  
Cristiano Cosmovici ◽  
Pascale Ehrenfreund ◽  
David Latham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
International Society ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Extrasolar Planets ◽  
Extraterrestrial Life ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
Formation And Evolution ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth

Historically, there have been two main groups dealing with the investigation of extraterrestrial life and habitable worlds. The first is IAU Commission 51, composed of astronomers, physicists and engineers who focus on the search for extrasolar planets, formation and evolution of planetary systems, and the astronomical search for intelligent signals. The second group, the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL), is composed largely of biologists and chemists focusing research on the biogenesis and evolution of life on Earth and in the solar system. There are now a variety of international organizations dedicated to this field, and this triennium has seen the beginnings of coordination and interaction between the groups through the Federation of Astrobiology Organizations, FAO.

Assembling Life

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Hot Springs ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
Cellular Life ◽  
Habitable Planet ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
A Site

In Assembling Life, David Deamer addresses questions that are the cutting edge of research on the origin of life. For instance, how did non-living organic compounds assemble into the first forms of primitive cellular life? What was the source of those compounds and the energy that produced the first nucleic acids? Did life begin in the ocean or in fresh water on terrestrial land masses? Could life have begun on Mars? The book provides an overview of conditions on the early Earth four billion years ago and explains why fresh water hot springs are a plausible alternative to salty seawater as a site where life can begin. Deamer describes his studies of organic compounds that were likely to be available in the prebiotic environment and the volcanic conditions that can drive chemical evolution toward the origin of life. The book is not exclusively Earth-centric, but instead considers whether life could begin elsewhere in our solar system. Deamer does not propose how life did begin, because we can never know that with certainty. Instead, his goal is to understand how life can begin on any habitable planet, with Earth so far being the only known example.

Origin of Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Habitable Planets ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Point Of No Return ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Our knowledge of our solar system has passed the point of no return. Increasingly, it seems possible that scientists will soon discover how life is created on habitable planets like Earth and Mars. Scientists have responded to a renewed public interest in the origin of life with research, but many questions still remain unanswered in the broader conversation. Other questions can be answered by the laws of chemistry and physics, but questions surrounding the origin of life are best answered by reasonable extrapolations of what scientists know from observing the Earth and its solar system. Origin of Life: What Everyone Needs to Know® is a comprehensive scientific guide on the origin of life. David W. Deamer sets out to answer the top forty questions about the origin of life, including: Where do the atoms of life come from? How old is Earth? What was the Earth like before life originated? Where does water come from? How did evolution begin? After he provides the informational answer for each question, there is a follow-up: How do we know? This question expands the horizon of the whole book, and provides scientific reasoning and explanations for hypotheses surrounding the origin of life. How scientists come to their conclusions and why we can trust these answers is an important question, and Deamer provides answers to each big question surrounding the origin of life, from what it is to why we should be curious.

The Living Cosmos: A Fabric That Binds Art and Science

Leonardo ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 435-441
Author(s):  
Chris Impey ◽  
Heather Green
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Mixed Media ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Art And Science ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Media Constructions ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth

The authors, an astronomer and an artist, have collaborated on a series of seven mixed-media constructions and prose pieces that follow the flow and themes of Impey's book on astrobiology, The Living Cosmos. The book summarizes recent research on astrobiology, from the origin of life on Earth and its environmental range on this planet to the search for life in the solar system and beyond. The artist's work encapsulates these ideas with its use of material objects, textures, images and metaphors that mirror the elements of the scientific approach to astrobiology.

scholarly journals Nano-FTIR spectroscopic identification of prebiotic carbonyl compounds in Dominion Range 08006 carbonaceous chondrite

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Yesiltas ◽  
Timothy D. Glotch ◽  
Bogdan Sava
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Carboxylic Acids ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Carbonyl Compounds ◽  
Carbonaceous Chondrite ◽  
Parent Body ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
The Origin Of Life

AbstractMeteorites contain organic matter that may have contributed to the origin of life on Earth. Carbonyl compounds such as aldehydes and carboxylic acids, which occur in meteorites, may be precursors of biologically necessary organic materials in the solar system. Therefore, such organic matter is of astrobiological importance and their detection and characterization can contribute to the understanding of the early solar system as well as the origin of life. Most organic matter is typically sub-micrometer in size, and organic nanoglobules are even smaller (50–300 nm). Novel analytical techniques with nanoscale spatial resolution are required to detect and characterize organic matter within extraterrestrial materials. Most techniques require powdered samples, consume the material, and lose petrographic context of organics. Here, we report the detection of nanoglobular aldehyde and carboxylic acids in a highly primitive carbonaceous chondrite (DOM 08006) with ~ 20 nm spatial resolution using nano-FTIR spectroscopy. Such organic matter is found within the matrix of DOM 08006 and is typically 50–300 nm in size. We also show petrographic context and nanoscale morphologic/topographic features of the organic matter. Our results indicate that prebiotic carbonyl nanoglobules can form in a less aqueous and relatively elevated temperature-environment (220–230 °C) in a carbonaceous parent body.

Origin of Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Habitable Planets ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Point Of No Return ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Our knowledge of our solar system has passed the point of no return. Increasingly, it seems possible that scientists will soon discover how life is created on habitable planets like Earth and Mars. Scientists have responded to a renewed public interest in the origin of life with research, but many questions still remain unanswered in the broader conversation. Other questions can be answered by the laws of chemistry and physics, but questions surrounding the origin of life are best answered by reasonable extrapolations of what scientists know from observing the Earth and its solar system. Origin of Life: What Everyone Needs to Know® is a comprehensive scientific guide on the origin of life. David W. Deamer sets out to answer the top forty questions about the origin of life, including: Where do the atoms of life come from? How old is Earth? What was the Earth like before life originated? Where does water come from? How did evolution begin? After he provides the informational answer for each question, there is a follow-up: How do we know? This question expands the horizon of the whole book, and provides scientific reasoning and explanations for hypotheses surrounding the origin of life. How scientists come to their conclusions and why we can trust these answers is an important question, and Deamer provides answers to each big question surrounding the origin of life, from what it is to why we should be curious.

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