Panspermia, Past and Present: Astrophysical and Biophysical Conditions for the Dissemination of Life in Space

Wesson, Paul S.

doi:10.1007/s11214-010-9671-x

Cited by 48 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…In the picture presented here, the probability of finding biosignatures from planets or satellites in the Solar System or from exoplanets is negligibly small, unless we consider interplanetary or interstellar traveling of microorganisms 48,49 . It should be noted, however, that the case of a high abiogenesis rate (N life 1 for N * = 1) cannot be excluded by this work, because we assumed that abiotic RNA polymerization occurs only by the random Poisson process of adding monomers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Emergence of life in an inflationary universe

Totani

2020

Sci Rep

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Abiotic emergence of ordered information stored in the form of RNA is an important unresolved problem concerning the origin of life. A polymer longer than 40-100 nucleotides is necessary to expect a self-replicating activity, but the formation of such a long polymer having a correct nucleotide sequence by random reactions seems statistically unlikely. However, our universe, created by a single inflation event, likely includes more than 10 100 Sun-like stars. If life can emerge at least once in such a large volume, it is not in contradiction with our observations of life on Earth, even if the expected number of abiogenesis events is negligibly small within the observable universe that contains only 10 22 stars. Here, a quantitative relation is derived between the minimum RNA length l min required to be the first biological polymer, and the universe size necessary to expect the formation of such a long and active RNA by randomly adding monomers. It is then shown that an active RNA can indeed be produced somewhere in an inflationary universe, giving a solution to the abiotic polymerization problem. On the other hand, l min must be shorter than ∼20 nucleotides for the abiogenesis probability close to unity on a terrestrial planet, but a self-replicating activity is not expected for such a short RNA. Therefore, if extraterrestrial organisms of a different origin from those on Earth are discovered in the future, it would imply an unknown mechanism at work to polymerize nucleotides much faster than random statistical processes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Emergence of life in an inflationary universe

Totani

2020

Sci Rep

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“…Lithopanspermia represents the transfer of life by means of rocky material from one object to another (Burchell, 2004;Wesson, 2010;Wickramasinghe, 2010;Lingam, 2016a). Most studies have tended to focus on either interstellar (Napier, 2004;Belbruno et al, 2012) or interplanetary panspermia (Melosh, 1988;Gladman et al, 1996Gladman et al, , 2005.…”

Section: On the Likelihood Of Lithopanspermiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsurface exolife

Lingam

Loeb

2018

International Journal of Astrobiology

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We study the prospects for life on planets with subsurface oceans, and find that a wide range of planets can exist in diverse habitats with ice envelopes of moderate thickness. We quantify the energy sources available to these worlds, the rate of production of prebiotic compounds, and assess their potential for hosting biospheres. Life on these planets is likely to face challenges, which could be overcome through a combination of different mechanisms. We estimate the number of such worlds, and find that they may outnumber rocky planets in the habitable zone of stars by a few orders of magnitude. * Electronic address: manasvi.lingam@cfa.harvard.edu † Electronic address: aloeb@cfa.harvard.edu 1 As per NASA's Astrobiology Strategy: "Habitability has been defined as the potential of an environment (past or present) to support life of any kind."2 By "life-as-we-know-it", we will refer henceforth to organisms which involve carbon-based chemistry, and water constitutes the solvent.

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“…Nevertheless, Lage (2012) demonstrates the remarkable capacities for survival of extremophiles in conditions that attempt to simulate those found in the space environment. 81 Pg 60 inactivated virus-like organisms See Wesson (2010) for the interesting notion of necropanspermia. 82 Pg 60 directed panspermia See Crick and Orgel (1973) and Crick (1981).…”

Section: They Were Here and Left Evidence Of Their Presencementioning

confidence: 99%

If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

Webb

2015

Science and Fiction

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Panspermia, Past and Present: Astrophysical and Biophysical Conditions for the Dissemination of Life in Space

Cited by 48 publications

References 57 publications

Emergence of life in an inflationary universe

Emergence of life in an inflationary universe

Subsurface exolife

If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

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