Long Term Time Variability of Cosmic Rays and Possible Relevance to the Development of Life on Earth

Abstract

An analysis is made of the manner in which the cosmic ray intensity at Earth has varied over its existence and its possible relevance to both the origin and the evolution of life. Much of the analysis relates to the 'high energy' cosmic rays (E [ 10 14 eV; =0.1 PeV) and their variability due to the changing proximity of the solar system to supernova remnants which are generally believed to be responsible for most cosmic rays up to PeV energies. It is pointed out that, on a statistical basis, there will have been considerable variations in the likely 100 My between the Earth's biosphere reaching reasonable stability and the onset of very elementary life. Interestingly, there is the increasingly strong possibility that PeV cosmic rays are responsible for the initiation of terrestrial lightning strokes and the possibility arises of considerable increases in the frequency of lightnings and thereby the formation of some of the complex molecules which are the 'building blocks of life'. Attention is also given to the well known generation of the oxides of nitrogen by lightning strokes which are poisonous to animal life but helpful to plant growth; here, too, the violent swings of cosmic ray intensities may have had relevance to evolutionary changes. A particular variant of the cosmic ray acceleration model, put forward by us, predicts an increase in lightning rate in the past and this has been sought in Korean historical records. Finally, the time dependence of the overall cosmic ray intensity, which manifests itself mainly at sub-10 GeV energies, has been examined. The relevance of cosmic rays to the 'global electrical circuit' points to the importance of this concept.

Terrestrial Effects of Nearby Supernovae in the Early Pleistocene

“…The atmospheric ionization effects we find are strong. It has been speculated that some of these effects may related to the rate of lightning strokes (Erlykin and Wolfendale 2010) and other changes that may alter climate (Mironova et al 2015). We will consider (a) radiation on the ground and in the upper ~1 km of ocean and (b) ionization of the atmosphere.…”

From Cosmic Explosions to Terrestrial Fires?

“…It has been proposed that cosmic rays set off electron avalanches in the atmosphere which are the main initiator of lightning (Gurevich et al, 1999(Gurevich et al, , 2008(Gurevich et al, , 2009Erlykin and Wolfendale, 2010;Chilingarian et al, 2017a;Kumar et al 2018). Until recently this was an eminently reasonable idea with only circumstantial evidence in its favor.…”

“…A 50 times increase in atmospheric ionization in the troposphere would clearly make the breakdown and electron cascade much easier, and one could expect a great increase in lightning (e.g. Erlykin and Wolfendale, 2010). Furthermore, the originally isotropic distribution of cosmic rays would result in showers which are much more preferentially vertical, due to the variation in atmospheric column density with angle.…”

Methods of electron microscopy of biological and abiogenic structures in artificial gas atmospheres

“…In a general thermodynamic case, an abiogenic atmosphere is an ideal gas with which a protocell membrane or lipid bilayer can "work" as Maxwell's demon [110]. From the perspective of physics of abiogenesis, this problem statement is determined by a known role of cosmic rays [104,105], in particular, charged particles [111,112], in the formation of prebiological organic com pounds in gas atmospheres [113], which is fundamen tally different from the principles of cosmic formation of the same compounds under the action of cosmic radiations [114]. Much the same is true for the emis sion of particles by radioisotopes [115], which, taking into account the presence of the phenomena of cluster radioactivity, emission of one or two protons, positron decay, etc., makes it possible to bombard a "precursor" for abiogenic synthesis with modes of radiations which are quite differentiated for the synthesis of various products.…”