A cosmic virosphere (original) (raw)

Exploring the Cosmic Context of Earth

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2012

Studying the amazingly diverse planet zoo provides us with unprecedented opportunities for understanding planet Earth and ultimately ourselves. An assessment of a planet's "habitability" reflects our Earth-centric prejudice and can serve to prioritise targets to actually search for signatures of life similar to ours. The probability for life beyond Earth to exist however remains unknown, and studies on habitability or statistics of planetary systems do not change this. But we can leave speculation behind, and embark on a journey of exploration. A sample of detected cosmic habitats would provide us with insight on the conditions for life to emerge, develop, and sustain, but disentangling the biota fraction from the duration of the biotic era would depend particularly on our knowledge about the dynamics of planetary systems. Apart from the fact that planets usually do not come alone, we also must not forget that the minor bodies in the Solar system vastly outnumber the planets. A focus on just what we might consider "habitable" planets is too narrow to understand their formation and evolution. While uniqueness prevents understanding, we need to investigate the context and embrace diversity. A comprehensive picture of planet populations can only arise by exploiting a variety of different detection techniques, where not only Kepler but also gravitational microlensing can now enter hitherto uncharted territory below the mass or size of the Earth. There is actually no shortage of planets, the Milky Way alone may host hundreds of billions, and so far we have found only about 1000.

The Imperatives of Cosmic Biology

The transformation of organic molecules into the simplest self-replicating living system,a microorganism, is accomplished from a unique event or rare events that occurred early in the Universe. The subsequent dispersal on cosmic scales and evolution of life is guaranteed, being determined by well-understood processes of physics and biology. Entire galaxies and clusters of galaxies can be considered as connected biospheres, with lateral gene transfers, as initially theorized by Joseph (2000), providing for genetic mixing and Darwinian evolution on a cosmic scale. Big bang cosmology modified by modern fluid mechanics suggests the beginning and wide intergalactic dispersal of life occurred immediately after the end of the plasma epoch when the gas of protogalaxies in clusters fragmented into clumps of planets. Stars are born from binary mergers of such planets within such clumps. When stars devour their surrounding planets to excess they explode, distributing necessary fertilizing chem...

Astroecology, Cosmo-Ecology, and the Future of Life

Astroecology concerns the relations between life and space resources, and cosmoecology extrapolates these relations to cosmological scales. Experimental astroecology can quantify the amounts of life that can be derived from space resources. For this purpose, soluble carbon and electrolyte nutrients were measured in asteroid/meteorite materials. Microorganisms and plant cultures were observed to grow on these materials, whose fertilities are similar to productive agricultural soils. Based on measured nutrient contents, the 10^22 kg carbonaceous asteroids can yield 10^18 kg biomass with N and P as limiting nutrients (compared with the estimated 10^15 kg biomass on Earth). These data quantify the amounts of life that can be derived from asteroids in terms of time-integrated biomass [BIOTAint = biomass (kg) × lifetime (years)], as 10^27 kg-years during the next billion years of the Solar System (a thousand times the 1024 kg-years to date). The 10^26 kg cometary materials can yield biota 10 000 times still larger. In the galaxy, potential future life can be estimated based on stellar luminosities. For example, the Sun will develop into a white dwarf star whose 10^15 W luminosity can sustain a BIOTAint of 10^34 kg-years over 10^20 years. The 10^12 main sequence and white and red dwarf stars can sustain 10^46 kg-years of BIOTAint in the galaxy and 10^57 kg-years in the universe. Life has great potentials in space, but the probability of present extraterrestrial life may be incomputable because of biological and ecological complexities. However, we can establish and expand life in space with present technology, by seeding new young solar systems. Microbial representatives of our life-form can be launched by solar sails to new planetary systems, including extremophiles suited to diverse new environments, autotrophs and heterotrophs to continually form and recycle biomolecules, and simple multicellulars to jump-start higher evolution. These programs can be motivated by life-centered biotic ethics that seek to secure and propagate life. In space, life can develop immense populations and diverse new branches. Some may develop into intelligent species that can expand life further in the galaxy, giving our human endeavors a cosmic purpose.

An Astrophysical Basis for a Universal Origin of Life

Advances in Complex Systems, 2003

We propose a universal, astrophysically based theory of the origin of life on Earth and on other rocky planets as well. Life is an information system where the information content grows because of selection. It must start with the minimum possible information, or the minimum possible departure from thermodynamic equilibrium. It also requires thermodynamically free energy that is accessible by means of its information content. Hence, for its origin, we look for the most benign circumstance or minimum entropy variations over long times with abundant free energy. The unique location for this condition is the pore space in the first few kilometers of the earth's surface. The free energy is derived from the condensed products of the chemical reactions taking place in the cooling nebula e.g. iron oxides and fixed hydrocarbon, ( CH 2)16 and the benign environment is the thermal and radiation isolation of the earth's crust. We discuss how this environment occurs naturally and univer...

Creation and Coherent Evolution of Cosmos and Life on Earth; Part2

Epigraph Genesis: Cosmological Echoes: There was a time when Time itself stood still And Triune Space was formless, void and vast; No mater stirred; there was no eye to see Nor mind to comprehend the vacant past. And yet within this carapace of calm, In subjugation to the laws of chance Dark Energy lurked stealthy in the shade, Provoking random waves in ghostly dance. As when Earth's winds and ocean waves conspire To focus energy in gathering storm, In hurricane of chiral power immense, Or maelstrom far exceeding any norm, So these primordial space-time waves converged With flux of energy t'ward caustic point, Focus of pressure infinite, intense, Where graviton and photon were conjoint. Such fusion of extremes could scarce endure: Explosive stress induced chaotic schism, Releasing pent-up energy as mass In sonoluminescent cataclysm. There was a time when molecules converged In replicative mode precursing Life, Genetic coding, helices that merged, A spiral staircase to our world of strife. Dark Energy still roams athwart the bound Where lightning flits and quarks have ceased to churn, That sphere in spectral darkness all begowned, That Bourne from which no echo can return i. © hkm

Cosmicrobia: A New Designation for the Theory of Cosmic Life

The common belief is that the present author and Fred Hoyle in the late 1970's embarked on a programme of work to revive the discredited, two and a half millennia-old, theory of panspermia on a whim. In this article I attempt to clear up this misconception and show that we were guided inexorably toward such a goal as a flood of new supporting data came to light from astronomy, geology as well as biology. This is an important record to set right as evidence continues to grow in the direction of supporting the theory of life being a cosmic phenomenon.