Some theories speculate that the first self-replicating molecules, and hence the simplest possible form of life on Earth, could have arisen as soon as the oceans cooled, well over 4 billion years ago.
With the exception of hydrogen, which appeared in the first few minutes after the Big Bang, all of these elements are created in the hearts of stars during their life cycles.
So, as long as you have at least one or two generations of stars living and dying, and thereby spreading their elements out into the wider galaxy, you can have Earth-like life appearing in the universe.
So, life as we know it — built on chains of carbon, using oxygen to transport energy, and submersed in a bath of liquid water — may be much, much older than Earth.
Hypothetical “dark life” may have appeared in the extremely early universe, well before the emergence of the first stars, powered and mediated by forces we do not yet understand.
Some physicists have hypothesized that in the earliest moments of the Big Bang, the forces of nature were so extreme and so exotic that they could have supported the growth of complex structures.
The original article contains 1,013 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Some theories speculate that the first self-replicating molecules, and hence the simplest possible form of life on Earth, could have arisen as soon as the oceans cooled, well over 4 billion years ago.
With the exception of hydrogen, which appeared in the first few minutes after the Big Bang, all of these elements are created in the hearts of stars during their life cycles.
So, as long as you have at least one or two generations of stars living and dying, and thereby spreading their elements out into the wider galaxy, you can have Earth-like life appearing in the universe.
So, life as we know it — built on chains of carbon, using oxygen to transport energy, and submersed in a bath of liquid water — may be much, much older than Earth.
Hypothetical “dark life” may have appeared in the extremely early universe, well before the emergence of the first stars, powered and mediated by forces we do not yet understand.
Some physicists have hypothesized that in the earliest moments of the Big Bang, the forces of nature were so extreme and so exotic that they could have supported the growth of complex structures.
The original article contains 1,013 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!