Cosmology, January 30, 2010
1Emeritus, Brain Research Laboratory, Northern California,
2Center for Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA
Keywords: Origin of life, Astrobiology, Extraterrestrial Life, Panspermia, Abiogenesis, Black Holes, Galaxies, Nebula, Nebular Clouds, Supernova, Quasars
1. Life Did Not Begin on Earth: When Religion Masquerades as Science
Humans have long stared into the abyss and the abyss has stared back. For thousands of years humans have gazed into the heavens pondering the nature of existence, and asking: How did it all begin? Are we alone in the vastness of the cosmos? Are there people on other planets? How did life begin?
Answers and explanations have incorporated the religious, magical, and supernatural, and not uncommonly, religion dressed up in the language of science.
For almost two thousand years it has been the position of the Catholic church that the universe was created, Earth is the center of the universe, and life on Earth came from the earth following the commands of a creator god (Augustine, 1957) from which, according to the Jewish-Christian Bible, all existence has its source:
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so" (Genesis, Chapter 1). Thus, according to the early Church Fathers, a creator god must have given the Earth special life giving powers: "The earth is said then to have produced grass and trees causaly, that is, to have received the power of producing" (Augustine (1957).
According to the Catholic Church, "god" created the heavens, the universe, and Earth, and "god" gave the earth the potential for spontaneously generating life from non-life and this power has never been taken away. "There was already present ...a certain natural force, as it were, preseminated, and as it were, the primordial beginnings of the future animals which were to arise... through the infallible administration of the unchangeable Creator who makes all things" (Augustine, 1957). "For if there are creatures which are successively produced by their predecessors, there are others that even today we see born from the earth itself" (St Basil, Archbishop of Ceaserea; Rousseau, 1994).
Charles Darwin originally underwent religious training to become a minister of religion and a member of the Christian clergy (Barlow 1959), and in the last paragraph of his "Origin of Species" attributed everything to "our creator." Darwin was well versed in the Biblical account of life emerging from the earth. In 1887, Darwin wrote a letter to a friend where he put these beliefs into scientific language, in a model of life's origins known as the organic soup: "If (and oh what a big if) we could conceive in some warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, etc., present, that a protein compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes...." These chemical compounds, Darwin (1887) proposed, would eventually become a living entity and emerge from the earth--exactly as dictated by the Christian religion.
In its latest incarnation the "Abiogenesis" hypothesis is still based on the belief that Earth is special, unique, blessed with life generating powers, and is the center of the biological universe. Therefore, life began on Earth, from non-life, from lightning bolts striking a random mixture of chemicals in a supernatural organic soup (Haldane, 2009), or from the random mixture of H2, CO2, N2, and H2S, with the energy provided by a deep sea thermal vent; and then, voilà, a miracle, its alive (Lane, et al., 2010). These claims are so naive and laden with magical thinking, they are the equivalent of discovering a computer on Mars, and claiming it was randomly assembled in the Methane sea.
There is absolutely no evidence to support the belief that Earth is the center of the biological universe or that life began on Earth. There is in fact considerable evidence demonstrating life could never have begun on this planet. Belief in the absence of evidence and in the face of contradictory evidence is not science, but faith which is the domain of religion. The claim that life began on Earth, and the Earth is the center of the biological universe, is religion masquerading as science.
2. Life Could Not Have Begun on Earth
Theories have been put forward to explain how life may have begun on Earth, and other planets via abiogenesis and which avoid Earth-centered dogma (e.g, Goertzel and Combs, 2010; Istock, 2010; Naganuma and Sekine 2010; Rampelotto, 2010; Schulze-Makuch 2010). The detailed and impressive work of Russell and colleagues (Russell and Hall, 1999; Russell and Kanik, 2010) is particularly notable.
The problems with Earth-centered abiogenesis have been detailed by numerous scientists, some of whom such as famed astronomer Fred Hoyle (1974,1982) and Nobel laureates Svante Arrhenius (1908/2009) and Francis Crick (1981) have offered alternative explanations for the origins of life on Earth; theories collectively referred to as "panspermia" (Burchell, 2010; Joseph, 2000; Rampelotto, 2009; Wickramasinghe et al., 2009)
The problems with an Earth-centered abiogenesis can be summed up as follows: A) Complex life was present on Earth almost from the beginning. B) Stastically, there was not enough time to create a complex self-replicating organism. C) DNA and complex organic molecules would have been destroyed by the environment of the early Earth. D) All the essential ingredients for creating life were missing on the new Earth. E) There is no evidence that life has been or can be produced from non-life on this planet.
3. Statistics and Complexity: Not Enough Time For Life to Be Fashioned on Earth.
There is evidence of biological and microbial activity in the oldest rocks on Earth, dated to over 4.2 billion years ago (Nemchin et al. 2008; O'Neil et al. 2008). Battistuzzi and Hedges (2009), based on a genomic analysis concluded that both bacteria and archae were present on this planet over 4 billion years ago. By 3.8 billion years ago (bya), life was flourishing on this planet with evidence from a variety of locations not just of prokarotic activity (Mojzsis, et al., 1996; Rosing, 1999, Rosing and Frei, 2004) but eukaryotic cell structures (Pflug, 1978). Earth was already crawling with complex life during a period of heavy bombardment by comets, asteroids and meteors when the planet was still forming. This and related evidence has been interpreted to mean life on Earth must have been contained in the debris which helped to form this planet (Joseph 2000, 2009a).
Could complex life have been formed within 300 million years while the planet was still forming?
Single cellular microbes are comprised of more than 2,500 small molecules (e.g. including amino acids consisting of 10 to 50 tightly packed atoms), as well as macro-molecules (proteins and nucleic acids) and polymeric molecules (which are comprised of hundreds to thousands of small molecules) all of which are precisely jigsawed together to form a single celled organism (Cowan and Talaro, 2008; Joseph, 2000). The tiniest and most primitive of single celled creatures contain a variety of micro- macro- and polymeric molecules and over 700 proteins which fit and function together as a living mosaic of tissues. Moreover, each of the many thousands of different molecules that make up a single cellular creature perform an incredible variety of chemical reactions -often in concert with that cell's other molecules and their protein (enzyme) products.
Life was present on this planet from the very beginning as indicated by biological evidence in this planet's oldest rocks (Nemchin et al. 2008; O'Neil et al. 2008). How could chance combinations have created such complexity, a living mosaic within 300 million years after the Earth began to form? Nobel laureate Francis Crick (1981) believed that even 10 billion years would not be enough time. Indeed, estimates of the time needed for these chance combinations to have produced life have ranged from 100 billion to over 1 trillion years (Crick 1981; Horgan, 1991; Hoyle, 1974, 1982; Yockey) to completely improbable (Dose, 1988; Kuppers, 1990).
4. Statistics and Complexity: Proto-Organisms Could Not Have Been Randomly Created on Earth
Some organic soup acolytes argue that life on Earth began with a proto-organism, which later evolved into a microbe. Oparin (2003) championed what he called a "protobiont," whereas Woese (1968, 1987; Woese and Fox 1977) imagines a "progenote" which consisted of a few hundred proteins. These began to self-replicate and then evolved into microbes. There is no evidence, however, that a proto-organism ever existed on this planet; and it it had, it would never have been able to survive.
Even the simplest of single celled "organisms," Carsonella, requires 160,000 base-pairs of DNA, and 182 separate genes, in order to live and function (Nakabachi et al., 2006). However, Carsonella cannot live indendently, and is parasitic and depends on a living host, a psyllid insect, to survive. By contrast, the genome of Mycoplasma genitalium (Fraser, et al., 1995), the smallest free-living microbe, has over 580,000 base pairs and over 213 genes, 182 of these coding for proteins.
The statistical probability of randomly fashioning one gene from random combinations of all its constituent elements, is more than once chance in a hundred million trillion. Yes, perhaps through random mixing, life could have been created on this planet within a trillion years. Perhaps even within 100 billion. However, given that this planet began to form 4.6 billion years ago, coupled with evidence of complex life in the oldest rocks on Earth dated to 4.2 billion years ago, it is just impossible to conceive how randomg mixtures could have resulted in a proto-organism which became a complex microbe in less than 300 million years on this planet.
However, even if by miracles of chance a "protobiont," a "progenote" or any proto-organism in any way similar to Carsonella had been generated on Earth via abiogenesis, the question becomes: How did it metabolize energy or enage in membrane synthesis? Since there is no evidence that a "protobiont" or a "progenote" has ever existed on Earth, our best example of how a proto-organism might have functioned is the proto-organism Carsonella: The Carsonella genome lacks the genes necessary for energy metabolism and membrane synthesis (Nakabachi et al., 2006; Tamames, et al., 2007). It is unable to synthesize proteins. It requires a eukaryotic host to survive. Therefore, if we wish to believe that life on Earth evolved from a "protobiont," or "progenote," then random chance events would also have had to create the necessary proteins (as well as a living host) for these proto-organisms to survive.
Hoyle (1974) calculated the probability of forming just a single protein consisting of a chain of 300 amino acids is (1/20)300 or 1 chance in 2.04 x 10390. Yockey (1977) calculated that the probability of achieving the linear structure of creating, one protein, 104 amino acids long, by chance is 2 x 10-65. The odds of this happening on Earth within three hundred millions years, or even within 10 billion years is completely improbable.
A living cell of course, contains more than a single protein.
Microbes range in size, but the smallest free ranging microbes consist of at least 700 proteins (Cowan and Talaro, 2008). However, even if we were to propose that only 240 to 250 proteins were necessary to create the first replicon, or proto-organism, the probability of forming these proteins from left-handed amino acids would be between 1 in 10 29,345 to 1 in 1033,635. In other words, it would take trillions of chance combinations of all the necessary ingredients. All the ingredients would have to be freely available and concentrated in the same location where the mixing was taking place. However, the constituent most crucial elements, such as oxygen, sugar, and phosphorus, were not freely available on the new Earth (Russell and Arndt 2005; Sun, 1982; Sun and Nesbitt, 1977).
Even if the necessary chemicals were available, as a matter of basic statistics, the probability that a single protein, or a single gene, or that life would randomly form on Earth within 300 million or even a billion years, given these odds, is essentially zero.
Specifically, and in accordance with what is known as "Borel's Law" any odds beyond 1 in 1050 have a zero probability of ever happening. As summed up by the mathematician, Emil Borel (1962) "phenomena with very small probabilities do not occur."
Hoyle (1974) estimates it would take a trillion years. However, even a hundred trillion years would not be sufficient when the ingredients are missing.
Dr. Harold Klein, the chairman of a National Academy of Sciences committee which reviewed all the evidence, concluded that the simplest bacterium is so complicated it is impossible to imagine how it could have been created (Horgan 1991, p. 120). According to Dose (1988, p. 355), "The difficulties that must be overcome are at present beyond our imagination." Kuppers (1990, p. 60) sums it up this way: "The expectation probability for the nucleotide sequence of a bacterium is thus so slight that not even the entire space of the universe would be enough to make the random synthesis of a bacterial genome probable."
Given the complexity of DNA, and even a single protein, the likelihood that life could have arisen gradually and merely by chance, at least on Earth, is zero. The likelihood that a proto-organism may have been randomly created on Earth is zero. Adding to the completely improbability is the fact that all the essential ingredients for DNA or protein construction were not available on this planet (Joseph 2000).
5. The Early Earth Was Missing All The Necessary Ingredients For Life
The young Earth was lacking all the necessary ingredients for fashioning DNA including sugar, phosphorus and free oxygen (Joseph 2000, 2009b,c). The double helix of DNA consists of two strands of nucleotides which are linked and held together by weak electrostatic hydrogen bonds, thereby forming two complementary strands of "base pairs" (e.g. C-G, T-A, G-C, A-T, etc.). These strands are laddered together via two sugar-phosphate backbones thereby creating a long twisting spiral, the double helix.
Even if we accept the flawed premise of an RNA world (Gilbert, 1986), these hypothetical RNA-replicons were still deprived of free oxygen, sugar, and phosphorus and therefore could not have somehow manufactured or assembled DNA. Oxygen and phosphorus were not available for DNA assembly on the young Earth, being locked up and tightly bound in water-insoluble calcium apatite (calcium phosphate) and other minerals. It took over a billion years for free oxygen and phosphorus to begin accumulating, and both were produced or liberated biologically (Joseph, 2009b,c).
Moreover, even assuming the existence of an RNA world (Gilbert, 1986), or RNA-based life, it not only had to have acquired catalytic abilities, but had to couple the nucleotides it created with sugars and sugar-phosphates so as to fashion a stable RNA-molecule. As there were apparently no free-phosphates or sugars available, this RNA-based life had to either create sugars and phosphates where there was none, or extract or synthesize it from minerals. How could this have been accomplished on this planet?
Lastly, and most fatal to the "RNA world" is the simple fact that viruses, even with their complex RNA genome, require the DNA of a living host to replicate.
DNA comes first, not RNA. An Earthly "RNA World" exists only in the imagination.
6. Complex Organic Molecules Would Have Been Destroyed on the Early Earth.
The early Earth was continually bombarded by meteors, asteroids, comets, and moon-sized and planet sized debris for over 700,000 years (Belbruno and Gott, 2005; Jacobsen, 2005; Poitrasson et al. 2004, Rankenburg et al. 2006; Schoenberg et al. 2002). Complex life was contained in that debris, which included planetary material ejected from the "parent star" system a prior to supernova (Joseph 2009a). Microfossils of complex micro-organisms have in fact been found in 15 meteors (Claus and Nagy 1961; Folk and Lynch 1997; Hoover 1997, 1998, 2006; Hoover and Rozanov, 2003; Pflug 1984; Nagy et al. 1961,1963a,b; Zhmur and Gerasimenko 1999; Zhmur et al. (1997), almost all of which predate the creation of Earth. These include fossilized colonies resembling cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) discovered in the Orgeuil, Murchison (Hoover 1984, 1997) and Efremovka meteorite (Zhmur and Gerasimenko 1999); cyanobacteria (Zhmur et al., 1997), virus particles and clusters of an extensive array of microfossils similar to methanogens and other archae in the Murchison (Pflug 1984); and organized elements and cell structures that resemble fossilized algae and microscopic fungi within the Orgeuil (Claus & Nagy 1961; Nagy et al. 1962; Nagy et al. 1963a,b,c).
Figure 2. Cyanobacteria.
The fact that chemicals from space fell to Earth, does not mean these chemicals achieved life in 300 million years. In fact, the volatile conditions which characterized this planet for the first 800 million years would have actively prevented these chemicals from even forming "pre-biotic" compounds (Crick 1981; Ehrenfreund and Sephton 2006).
For almost 800 million years Earth was continually pounded by mountain-size, moon-size, and even planet-sized debris (Belbruno and Gott, 2005; Jacobsen, 2005; Poitrasson et al. 2004, Rankenburg et al. 2006; Schoenberg et al. 2002). The violent, volatile, shattering, shocking, turbulent, hyperthermal conditions on the early Earth, coupled with the lack of a significant atmosphere, extreme temperatures, insufficient water, and continual bathing in gamma, cosmic, and UV rays, would have destroyed all complex organic carbon based molecules and would have made the assembly of even the most rudimentary life-associated elements an impossibility (Crick 1981; Ehrenfreund and Sephton 2006).
The chemical compositiion of the new born Earth and its thin atmosphere, was not condusive to the formation of an organic soup or complex molecules that could be remotely construed as "pre-biotic" (Crick 1981; Ehrenfreund and Menten, 2002; Ehrenfreund and Sephton 2006; Joseph, 2000). Even if all the elements necessary for creating DNA were present, naked DNA and all other so called "pre-biotic" molecules would have also been instantly destroyed by the UV rays which enveloped the unprotected planet.
The early Earth was much colder as the sun was 40% less luminous than today (Sackmann et al., 1993). However, when the Earth was forming the sun may have been emmiting UV radiation at an intensity 10,000 times greater than today and 4 times greater at 3.5 billion years (Sackmann et al., 1993)--thus destroying all prebiotic molecules.
It was not until between 3.5 and 2.2 billion years ago that an organic haze had accumulated to a sufficient degree to protect against UV radiation (Joseph 2009; Pavlov et al., 2000), well after extraterrestrial life had colonized this planet. After 2.2 bya, oxygen level increased markedly (Farquhar et al., 2000) and this oxygen was produced by biological activity (Joseph 2009b,c), with the first evidence of life appearing 4.2 BP, two billion years before the abiogenic creation of the necessary "pre-biotic" molecules required to create life was even possible.
The basic organic chemistry which provides the foundations of life are extremely unstable and breaks down over time and in response to even the normal range of temperatures that characterized this planet today (Crick, 1981). Not only did the early planet lack a protective atmosphere, but for 700 million years the Earth was constantly bombarded by debris which generated incredible temperatures and induced destructive levels of geo-thermal motion. These conditions are not conducive to the creation of life or organic chemistry, and would disrupt the strong chemical bonds which hold an organic molecule firmly together (Crick, 1981; Ehrenfreund and Sephton 2006). This bombardment did not cease until 3.8 BP (Schoenberg, et al., 2002) when life had already become established on Earth.
7. Complex Life Was Present on Earth From the Beginning.
There is evidence of microbial activity dated from 3.8 to 4.2 bya, in Earth's oldest rocks (Mojzsis, et al., 1996; Nemchin et al. 2008; O'Neil et al. 2008; Pflug 1978; Rosing, 1999, Rosing and Frei, 2004). These include the discovery of very high concentrations of carbon 12, or “light carbon” within metasediments formed 4.2 bya in Western Australia (Nemchin et al. 2008). High concentrations of carbon 12, or “light carbon” is typically associated with microbial life. Evidence of biological activity from 4.2 bya is also indicated by the banded iron formations in northern Quebec, Canada, consisting of alternating magnetite and quartz (O'Neil et al. 2008).
Presumably, the biological fingerprints from 4.2 bya were left by single celled microbes who were already fractionating and secreting carbon and magnetite. By this date, Earth was still forming and only approximately 300 million years old.
In addition, microfosils resembling yeast cells and fungi, was discovered in 3.8 billion year old quartz, recovered from Isua, S. W. Greenland (Pflug 1978). Therefore, not just prokaryotes but eukaryotes were already flourishing within 600 million years and while Earth was still undergoing bombardment from space. This is not surprising, as archae and microbes (known as extremophiles) can survive and even flourish under the most extreme life-neutralizing conditions; and when they face death, they form spores and then survive for another 250 million (Vreeland et al. 2000) to 600 million years (Dombrowski 1963).
Further evidence of biological including photosynthesizing activity in these ancient rock formations is indicated by the high carbon contents of the protolith shale, and the ratio of carbon isotopes in graphite from metamorphosed sediments dating to to 3.8 bya (Rosing, 1999, Rosing and Frei, 2004). Additional evidence of biological activity from a separate location is dated to 3.8 bya (Mojzsis, et al., 1996), and include tiny grains of a phosphate mineral, apatite which contains calcium, as well as the residue of photosynthesis, oxygen secretion, and thus biological activity: high level of organic carbon.
Therefore, complex life was already flourishing on this planet although all the necessary ingredients for the manufacture of life did not exist on the young planet. Complex prokaryotes and eukaryotes were thriving although the conditions of the planet at this time made it impossible to form or maintain the molecules essential for the abiogenic creation of life. Despite the fact that there was insufficient time for chance combinations to have created even proto-life, complex prokaryotes and eukaryotes had already colonized this planet. Moreover, these microbes were liberating and secreting free oxygen, carbon, calcium, and other essential ingredients which made it possible for multi-cellular eukaryotic life to evolve (Joseph, 2000, 2009b,c); and these microbes were already engaged in these activities during a time period and under conditions which made the random creation of life an impossibility.
8. Earth, Mars, Moon: Life in this Solar System Came From Other Planets
Although many in the scientific community religiously adhere to the belief that Earth is the center of the Biological universe and that life originated on this planet, there is simply no evidence to support this view which is mired in religious, supernatural and magical thinking and which ignores the simple facts of biology. There was not enough time, all the necessary ingredients were missing, the conditions of this planet made the creation of life impossible, and life was present from the very beginning as indicated by evidence preserved in this planet's oldest rocks.
"If Life were to suddenly appear on a desert island we wouldn't claim it was randomly assembled in an organic soup or created by the hand of god; we'd conclude it washed to shore or fell from the sky. The Earth too, is an island, orbiting in a sea of space, and living creatures and their DNA have been washing to shore and falling from the sky since our planets creation" (Joseph, 2000).
Moreover, what appears to be microfossils were also discovered in lunar meteorites (Sears and Kral, 1998).
Thus, there is a confluence of evidence from a variety of scientists and extra-terrestrial sources demonstrating life is not confined to Earth, and that life was present on Earth and Mars from the very beginning. As to the purported Moon microfossils and the moon microbe, we can only speculate as to their origins, e.g. perhaps they were deposited on the lunar surface following bolide impact to the Earth, or via the same mechanisms of panspermia which brought life to this solar system.
Life in this solar system has a genetic ancestry which predate the origin of this solar system (Anisimov 2010; Jose et al., 2010; Joseph 2000, 2009b,c; Sharov 2009, 2010), and these ancient extra-terrestrial ancestors can be traced to living cells which were first incubated in the womb of nebular clouds, over 10 billion years ago.
9. Life in this Galaxy Began Over 10 Billion Years Ago
Life on Earth came from other planets and nebular clouds, encased in meteors, asteroids, comets, and planetary and moon sized debris (Joseph, 2000, 2009a, 2010). There is no other logical, scientific, or factual, explanation for the origin of Earthly life.
However, to merely state that life originated somewhere other than Earth, as advocated by Arrhenius (1908/2009), Burchell (2010); Crick, (1981), Hoyle (Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, 2000) Joseph (2000, 2009a), Sharov (2009, 2010), Wickramasinghe et al (2009) and others, does not explain how life began.
Despite their Nobel prizes, neither Crick (1981) or Arrhenius (1908/2009), could come up with a solution. Arrhenius (1908/2009) raised the possibility that life may have had no beginning.
Although there was not enough time, insufficient ingredients, and other conditions which made it impossible for life to form and originate on Earth, this does not rule out the possibility of abiogenesis in a stellar environment where there was sufficient time, the right conditions and the proper ingredients (Joseph 2000, 2009a, 2010). In fact, based on evidence derived from genetics, microbiology, astrobiology, astrophysics and quantum physics, it has been proposed that the first steps toward carbon-based, DNA-based life, began in various extra-terrestrial environments billions of years before the Earth was formed (Anisimov 2010; Goertzel and Combs, 2010; González-Díaz, 2010; Jose et al., 2010; Joseph 2000, 2009, 2010; Line 2010; Poccia et al., 2010; Sharov 2009, 2010).
Anisimov (2010), basing his conclusions on genetics, points out that analysis of molecular clocks indicates Eubacteria and Archaebacteria were present on this planet over 4 billion years ago (Battistuzzi and Hedges, 2009). He notes further that based on genetics, the so called "last universal common ancestor" (LUCA) for archae and bacteria, was a complex cellular life form (Baymann et al., 2003) which required billions of years to evolve from the first organic molecules and several more billions years to evolve into archae and bacteria. Hence, LUCA had already evolved by 6 billion years ago, and its own ancestry extends further back in time by billions of more years (Anisimov 2010). If correct: this could mean that 6 bya LUCA began to evolve into archae and bacteria (becoming archae-bacteria over 4 bya), that 8 bya proto-cells began to evolve into LUCA (becoming LUCA over 6 bya), and that ancestral proto-cells began to evolve 10 bya (becoming proto-cells before 8 bya).
Bianconi and colleagues (Poccia et al., 2010) argue that the first forms of life were fashioned during the so called "Dark Energy Era" which presumably dominated following the hypothetical "Big Bang" over 10 billion years ago. The dark energy era, coupled with the period of rapid star formation followed by supernova, presumably resulted in the synthesis and dispersal of the energy and elements necessary for life. Poccia et al., (2010) propose that these "associations raise the possibility that the increase of dark energy, coupled with the stellar synthesis of the elements necessary for life, could be related to the emergence of life in the universe."
Based on genetics and the evolution of the genome, Sharov (2009, 2010) arrives at a birthdate of 10 billion years ago, and Anisimov (2010) notes this agrees with his data. Related to Sharov's analysis, Jose et al., (2010) describe how a primitive genetic code may have first been established in an extraterrestrial environment long before the creation of Earth. This extraterrestrial replicon began to replicate, made variable copies of itself and became more complex, giving rise to primitive riboorganisms. Through mechanisms of panspermia (Joseph 2009a), the descendants of these riboorganisms were eventually deposited on Earth.
Joseph (2000, 2009b,c) also developed a complex genetic model of life's origins, based on a detailed analysis of considerable genetic evidence, which he believes explains not just the origin but the evolution of life on Earth; what he calls "evolutionary metamorphosis." According to Joseph (2000, 2009a,b,c) life on Earth did not begin with proto-cells, but with complex microbes who were deposited on this planet within planetary debris and within "rogue planets" expelled from the dying star system which gave birth to our own. Since all modern life, and their universal genetic code, can be traced backwards in time to the first Earthlings which were not created on this planet, then this genetic ancestry can be traced to extraterrestrial life forms whose own ancestors descended from a common ancestor billions of years before Earth was created.
Therefore, based on genetics, Joseph (2000, 2009a,b,c) proposes that not only did life began before Earth was created, but life forms were repeatedly dispersed onto other worlds where they exchanged DNA via horizontal gene transfer. The first Earthlings arrived on this planet with fully formed genomes which were inherited from life forms that evolved on other planets.
Based on the analysis of Anisimov (2010), Jose et al., (2010), Joseph (2000, 2009a,b,c), Poccia et al., (2010), and Sharov (2009, 2010), it could be argued that very simple proto-cells, equipped with perhaps a few base pairs of DNA were fashioned around 10 billion to 13 billion years ago, in this galaxy (Joseph and Schild 2010). These proto-cells continued to evolve and were then dispersed from planet to planet and from nebular cloud to nebular cloud, according to the models of panspermia developed by Joseph (2000, 2009a, 2010) until becoming proto-organisms or achieving the status of complex microbes which were then deposited on this planet. And this is how life on Earth began.
10. Infinity: The Statical Odds of Life Forming in a Trillion Galaxies
If we accept the Big Bang hypothesis, in which the consensus of opinion is the universe was created around 13.8 billion years ago (Benett et al. 2003), then it could be argued that the statistical probability of life beginning even as proto-life, within 4 billion years of the "creation", i.e. 10 billion years ago, is zero. Estimates are that it would take from 100 billion to over 1 trillion years for chance combination to result in the creation of anything remotely capable of being called "life" (Crick 1981; Horgan, 1991; Hoyle, 1974; Yockey 1977).
The Big Bang birth date of the universe has been pushed steadily back from it initial estimate of 2 billion years to its current estimate of 13.75 billion years in age (Benett et al. 2003). However, the age of the Milky Way is believed to be 13.6 billion years in age (Pasquini et al., 2005). Moreover, fully formed galaxies have been discovered at a distance of over 13.1 billion light years from Earth (American Astronomical Society 2010), and which must have already been billions of years in age, over 13 billion years ago (Joseph 2010). There are globular clusters which appear to be over 16 billion years old (Van Flandern 2002). Then there are the vast voids and galactic "Superclusters" and "Great Walls" of galaxies (Geller and Hurcha, 1990; Tully 1986), such as the "Sloan Great Wall" (Gott et al. 2005). These great walls and super clusters of galaxies could have taken from 80 billion (Tully 1986) to 100 billion (Van Flandern 2002), to 150 billion years (Lerner 1990) to form.
The 13.7 billion year Big Bang birth date is an estimate, and it can be assumed that as technology improves and more powerful telescope are developed, ever more distant galaxies will be discovered, thus increasingly pushing back the age of the universe, such that even 150 billion years may turn out to be a gross underestimate. As such, life could have begun in a Big Bang universe, over 100 billion years ago.
Joseph (2000, 2010), argues there was no Big Bang, no creation event, and no creator god, and provides considerable evidence which he believes demonstrates the universe is infinite and eternal; and this would give infinite time for life to arise by chance. Joseph (2010) sums it up as follows: "... in an infinite universe, over infinite time, and given infinite chance combinations, it can be predicted that the constituent elements necessary for fashioning and combining together energy-extracting, self-replicating molecules may have been jumbled together an infinite number of times, such that a variety of life may have arisen in an infinite number of locations. Given infinite chance combinations over infinite time, it can also be deduced that not all life forms in the universe are like those of Earth. Life on this planet is just a sample of life's possibilities."
In an infinite, eternal universe with no beginning and no end, the odds are that life would arise not just once, but an infinite number of times, even if it would take a trillion years. However, as pointed out by Joseph (2010), life did not need an infinite amount of time, or even a trillion years to emerge. Rather, if provided a trillion locations with all the necessary ingredients, life could become established within a few billion years in at least a few of the infinite number of locations available.
The statistical model which has been used to rule out the possibility of life emerging on Earth, is based on the concept of a series of chance events, one happening after the other in the same location where all the ingredients are available; like one person flipping the same coin. Although it is impossible for life to have begun on Earth, the odds improve markedly when these chance combinations are taking place in trillions of locations throughout the cosmos where all the essential elements for life may be present in abundance, i.e. nebular clouds (Joseph 2010).
The number of stars in the known, Hubble length universe, is frankly unknowable. A single galaxy, such as Andromeda, may contain over a trillion stars (Mould, et al., 2008). The number of galaxies, however, is also unknowable, though if we were to venture a guess, it might be a trillion sextillion. Each of these galaxies contain hundreds of billions to trillions of stars, each of which was presumably fashioned in a nebular cloud (Hartmann et al., 2009; Huff and Stahler, 2006; Muench, et al., 2008; O'Dell et al., 2008).
Our Milky Way galaxy, and numerous other galaxies are over 13 billion years old (Pace and Pasquini, 2004; Pasquini et al., 2005). Hence, it could even be argued that these chance events began in this galaxy at least 13 billion years ago with the establishment of these galaxies whose stars were created in nebular clouds; clouds which contain all the necessary chemicals and agents for the creation of life (Belloche, 2009; Fraser, 2002; Jura, 2005; Osterbrock and Ferland 2005; Williams, 1998; Zelic, 2002).
Therefore, given a trillion sextillion galaxies with stars which are even more numerous, then the chance combinations in each of these environments could, over billions of years of time, repeatedly result in a self-replicating molecule. Given the odds of 1 in a trillion, it can be predicted that life independently arose in numerous galaxies after billions of years of chance combinations. In fact, life could have been created at least once, in each and every galaxy; i.e. in the womb of nebular clouds.
Even if we restrict our analysis to the Milky Way galaxy, with its 500 billion stars and its trillions of (likely) planets, then a trillion chance combinations may have occurred billions if not trillions of times, until finally a self-replicating combination of molecules were fashioned (Joseph and Schild 2010). We can predict that life could have begun by 10 billion years ago, in this galaxy, within 3 billion years after this galaxy formed 13.6 billion years ago.
Therefore, if we combine the theorizing and evidence marshaled by Jose et al., (2010), Joseph (2000, 2009a,b,c, 2010), Poccia et al., (2010), and Sharov (2009, 2010), it could be argued that the ancestry of carbon-based, DNA-based life, in this galaxy (as represented by life on Earth) extends backwards in time to at least 10 billion or more years, during a period and in locations when the chemistry and physics were ripe for triggering those self-replicating molecules whose descendants would eventually fall to Earth.
Hence, instead of the completely improbable 300 millions years for complex life to form on Earth, the 10 billion year birth date beginning with the first replicon, in this galaxy, provides an additional 6 billion years for complex life to be established before falling to Earth.
As the Milky Way is 13.6 billion years in age (Pasquini et al., 2005) it could be argued that over 13 billion years ago, 9 billion years before the Earth became a twinkle in god's eye, that the first steps toward life had already been taken and this is how life, in this galaxy, began.
It must be stressed, however, that in an infinite universe, or even a Big Bang universe (the birthdate of which is continually pushed backwards in time), life could have arisen hundreds of billions of years ago, and then hitchhiked from galaxy to galaxy, when galaxies collide (Joseph and Schild 2010).
11. Black Holes, Hydrogen, and the Chemicals of Life
Life on Earth is likely just a sample of life's possibilities. Life need not be carbon based, need not contain genes, and may instead be based on silica, sulphur, ammonia, or a combination of other substances (Goertzel and Combs, 2010; Istock. 2010; Naganuma and Sekine 2010; Rampelotto 2010; Schulze-Makuch 2010; Schulze-Makuch et al., 2004, 2006). If such life forms exist in the vastness of the cosmos, or in our own galaxy, they may have served as precursors, that is stepping stones leading to Carbon-DNA-based life.
All the examples we have of extra-terrestrial life, i.e. microfossils (Claus and Nagy 1961; Folk and Lynch 1997; Hoover 1997, 1998, 2006; Hoover and Rozanov, 2003; McKay, et al., 1996; Pflug 1984; Mitchell and Ellis, 1971; Nagy et al. 1961,1963a,b; Zhmur and Gerasimenko 1999; Zhmur et al. 1997) resemble those of Earth. There is no evidence that non-carbon, non-DNA life may have served as "stepping stones" or even that they exist. Therefore, we need only focus on the origin of those carbon-DNA-based life forms whose descendants eventually fell to Earth.
Life, as we know it, became life when the necessary, initial ingredients, were somehow mixed together, to generate an energy extracting, information sharing, replicating entity. These ingredients originated in stars and accumulated and mixed together within nebular clouds (Joseph 2010).
Galaxies, stars, planets, moons, molecules, atoms, and so on, are continually created and destroyed, and matter and energy, including hydrogen atoms, are continually recycled and recreated via activities associated with "black holes" also known as gravity holes, "Planck Particles" and "Gravitons" depending on their size and mass (Joseph 2010). These holes capture light expelling the wave and collapsing the photon or particle which is stripped down to gravity. The energies these holes deflect, radiate and expell, then bind with elementary particles to create new matter, i.e. hydrogen atoms (Joseph 2010).
Once created, proton H+ immediately attracts other electrons (as well as other atoms and molecules which contain electrons). Once the proton H+ captures an electron, it becomes a hydrogen atom. From there greater structures and compounds can be assembled (Gilli and Gilli, 2009; Rigden, 2003), such as liquid water, cellulose, microfibrils, polypeptides, DNA, and the stars which shine in the darkness of night.
Hydrogen is vital to life and is essential for the creation of stars
Hydrogen functions as an energy carrier (Gilli and Gilli, 2009; Rigden, 2003). Hydrogen (with a single proton and electron) is believed to constitute approximately 75% of the observable mass of the universe, and along with helium (the second lightest and simplest element) is the major component of main sequence stars (Clayton, 1984; Hansen et al., 2004). Stars emit photons which are stripped and then captured by black holes in the fabric of space time.
As photons (particle-waves) journey across pace, they are whittled down by gravity-holes smaller than a Planck length (Joseph 2010). As their energy is expelled, photons become smaller in size until they collapse and their remaining gravity/mass becomes one with the singularity of the black hole (Joseph 2010). However, as photons, electrons, protons, etc., collapse, not just their energy is liberated but the elementary particles they were comprised of.
Light and matter is not just broken down but is recycled. The liberated energy binds together elementary particles thereby creating hydrogen atoms and the entire cycles repeats itself, with hydrogen forming stars, stars releasing photons, and so on (Joseph, 2010).
The creation of hydrogen, in turns leads to the creation of carbon. It is the production of carbon which makes life, as we know it, possible.
12. Black Holes, Quasars, Hydrogen and Star Creation
It is generally believed that when stars greater than 4 solar masses collapse, they form black holes in the fabric of space time (Melia 2003b; Oppenheimer and Volkoff 1939; Thorn 1994; Wald, 1992). Every spiral galaxy is believed to have a supermassive black hole at its center (Blandford, 1999; Jones et al., 2004; Melia, 2003a,b). Near the center of the galaxy millions of stars closely orbit the supermassive black hole (Geiss et al., 2010), many of which become embraced by the gravitational grip of the hole and are destroyed and their energy liberated (Giess, et al., 2010; Melia, 2003; Merloni and Heinz, 2008; Thorne, 1994). These holes capture light, mass, matter, and radiate energy (Hawking, 1990, 2005; Preskill, 1994; Russell and Fender 2010 ), also known as Hawking's radiation.
Figure 15. M87. Black Hole radiating gas.
Quasars are highly luminous and emit oppositely oriented streams of gas deep into space at distances of over 1 million light years (Elbaz et al., 2009; Elvis, et al., 1994; McCarthy et al., 1987). These streams of hydrogen and helium gas do not rotate but are stable and appear to target nebular and interstellar clouds where they stimulate star production (Elbaz et al., 2009; Natarajan et al., 1998; Ooosterlooet et. al., 2005; Rejkuba et al., 2002). Black holes and quasars, therefore, are directly implicated in the creation not just of stars, but galaxies and the regulation of their growth.
Nebular clouds, like the the cosmos itself, are comprised of hydrogen (and other elements and gasses). Because quasars funnel and increase the amount of hydrogen gas within specific targeted areas, objects of sufficient mass and gravity within these targeted zones attract this additional hydrogen which forms an increasingly dense hydrogen atmosphere, thereby becoming a super-massive gas giant. Once the pressures and density of this accumulating hydrogen reaches a crucial threshold, a nuclear reaction ensues and that stellar object ignites, becoming a star (Joseph 2010).
Hence, quasars are fueled by black holes (Elbaz et al., 2009; Neilsen and Lee 2009), and these black holes are simultaneously destroying stars thereby liberating the energy and then the hydrogen gasses necessary for star production. Quasar HE0450-2958, for example, generates approximately 350 Suns per year (Elbaz et al., 2009), and is provided the energy by a black hole at its center which is simultaneously destroying older stars to create new ones. Therefore, stars are recycled to create new stars via the production of hydrogen.
13. Stars, Supernova and Carbon
Hydrogen would not have been produced directly in the big bang as the resulting heat and subsequent nucleosynthesis would have instead turned all elements into iron, thereby creating a universe made out of metal. However, according to Big Bang theory, hydrogen appeared out of a sea of protons and electrons as a neutral gas when the young universe expanded and cooled below a few thousand degrees Kelvin. Because the gas would have had a lower viscosity than the primordial proton soup, it dominated the early structure formation scene that produced the earliest planets and larger structures that quickly became galaxies (Gibson and Schild, 2009).
In the local universe, hydrogen is produced through the activities of black holes in space-time, be they super-massive holes in the center or spiral galaxies, or those resulting from terminal star burnout and collapse (Joseph 2010). Initially these newly generated hydrogen atoms do not contain an electron and are referred to as proton H+. However, it can become hydrogen plasma once it attracts an electron. In its plasma state, its electrons and protons are not bound together (Gilli and Gilli, 2009). This results in extremely high electrical conductivity and the emission of light.
Stars are comprised, initially almost entirely of hydrogen (Clayton, 1984), though a supermassive 12 million degree central core which gravitationally grips the hydrogen and other gasses thereby preventing them from leaking into space.
Once a star ignites, hydrogen burns at greater temperatures at the core than at the surface due to the greater pressures and densities (Clayton, 1984). As the hydrogen is burned it is slowly converted to helium through nuclear fusion. Once the helium begins to be burned, it is turned to carbon (Clayton, 1984; Hansen et al., 2004; Mezzacappa and Fuller, 2006).
Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe (preceded by oxygen, helium, and hydrogen). Carbon is found in comets, asteroids, meteors, planets, stars and nebular clouds, and is essential for life. Because of its complex outer electron structure, carbon has an unusual polymer-forming ability, is the major chemical constituent of most organic matter, creates millions of organic compounds, and is found in complex molecules and macro-molecules such as DNA and RNA. Carbon provides the chemical basis for all known forms of life.
When main sequence stars have consumed most of their hydrogen and begin to die and become a red giant, the helium core of the star begins to burn and collapse (Arnett, 1996; Clayton, 1984; Hansen et al., 2004; Mezzacappa and Fuller, 2006). The density and pressures cause helium alpha particles to be released. When these alpha particle collide they create carbon and the carbon atomic nucleus (Mezzacappa and Fuller, 2006). Specifically, the creation of the carbon atomic nucleus requires a triple collision of alpha particles (helium nuclei) and this occurs in the core of a red giant. Thus hydrogen is converted to helium and it takes three helium nuclei to create one carbon nuclei.
When the all the helium has been burned or turned into carbon, the remaining carbon core contracts and reaches temperature high enough to begin burning carbon into oxygen, neon, silicon, sulfur and a variety of other substances, including, last of all, iron (Clayton, 1984; Hansen et al., 2004; Mezzacappa and Fuller, 2006)
Stars produce the most important ingredients for the creation and maintenance of life as we know it. When these stars become red giants and then supernova, these seeds of life are dispersed into space where they coalsce in an expanding nebular cloud.
Stellar debris, nebulae, and interstellar clouds contain hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, water vapour, methanol, ethanol, cyanide, ammonia, formaldehyde, and complex organic molecules (Belloche 2009; Fraser 2002; Jura 2005; Osterbrock and Ferland 2005; Williams, 1998; Zelic, 2002). For example, a spectral line survey of Orion nebular clouds (Koning et al., 2008) has identified 40 different molecular species, including several organic compounds such as CH3CN, (methyl cyanide), CH3OH, 13CH3OH) (methanol), and CH3OCH3 (dimethyl ether). An examination of a nebular cloud within 3 astronomical units of AA Tauri revealed the presence of an abundance of simple organic molecules (HCN, C2H2, and CO2), water vapor, and OH. Water was particularly abundant throughout the inner disk which is a further indication of active organic chemistry (Carr and Najita 2008).
Further, there is an abundance of organic molecules, water, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons within interstellar clouds (Carr and Najita, 2008; Cerrigone et al., 2009; Osterbrock and Ferland 2005; Werner e al., 2009), which indicates either the presence of life, and which also serve as important ingredients for creating life.
Figure 22. Orion Nebula
These discoveries have also been replicated in laboratory settings. For example, Kobayashi et al., (2008) irradiated a frozen mixture of methanol, ammonia and water with high-energy heavy ions to simulate the action of cosmic rays in dense nebular clouds. Complex amino acid precursors with large molecular weights were produced. In addition, amino acids were detected after hydrolysis of the irradiation products. Therefore, it appears that amino acids can be easily formed in interstellar space (Kobayashi et al., 2008).
Figure 23. The Bubble Nebula
Therefore, within a nebular cloud, complex organic molecules can be provided all the ingredients necessary for building more complex molecular structures, including amino acids and proteins which can be combined to create additional life-related structures, including DNA. Even energy is supplied. Therefore, initially this molecular-protein complex need not do any work.
The combination of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, cyanide and several other elements, could possibly create adenine, which is a DNA base, whereas oxygen and phosphorus could ladder DNA base pairs together. Therefore, the building blocks for DNA may have also been generated within interstellar clouds.
Thus, DNA would become part of this molecular-protein-amino acid complex.
Further, these combinations would be buffeted by cosmic shock waves from additional supernova which in turn could provide these coalescing organic molecules and strands of DNA with heat and additional sources of energy. This energize DNA-molecular-protein complex could then begin to function as a proto-organism with all its needs provided by the nebular environment. The next step would be: microbial life.
Therefore, interstellar environments may have served as nuclear wombs of life (Joseph and Schild 2010). Thus, after several billion years within nebular environments which are constantly being resupplied with energy and all the necessary ingredients for life, self-replicating proto-cellular organisms, equipped with DNA, would likely be fashioned, giving rise to life. Therefore, it can be predicted that the generation of life may be an ongoing phenomenon in the oldest of nebular clouds.
However, only one replicon had to be jumbled together and energized. Once it became functional it would have immediately began replicating and creating variable copies of itself and its DNA.
At some point in the history of life, these replicons and their genomes became increasingly complex and they evolved into single celled organisms; and this evolutionary step may have also taken place in space. In fact it has been repeatedly demonstrated that microbes can survive conditions in space, including ejection from and the crash landing onto a planet, the frigid temperatures and vacuum of an interstellar environment, and the UV rays, cosmic rays, gamma rays, and ionizing radiation they would encounter (Burchell et al. 2004; Burchella et al. 2001; Horneck et al. 2001a.b, Horneck et al. 1994; Mastrapaa et al. 2001; Nicholson et al. 2000).
Microbes born on this planet are already pre-adapted for journeying through space, living in space, and not just surviving but flourishing in radioactive environments where they are continually exposed to radiation by ions similar to what might be encountered in a nebular cloud.
In 1958, physicists discovered clouds of bacteria, ranging from two million bacteria per cm3 and over 1 billion per quart, thriving in pools of radioactive waste directly exposed to ionizing radiation and radiation levels millions of times greater than could have ever before been experienced on this planet (Nasim and James, 1978). The world's first artificial nuclear reactor was not even built until 1942. Prior to the 1945, poisonous pools of radioactive waste did not even exist on Earth. And yet, over a dozen different species of microbe have inherited the genes which enable them to survive conditions which for the previous 4.5 billion years could have only been experienced in space. These radiation-loving microbes include Deinococcus radiodurans, D. proteolyticus, D. radiopugnans, D. radiophilus, D. grandis, D. indicus, D. frigens, D. saxicola, D. marmola, D. geothermalis, D. murrayi.
Thus it appear that proto-life and then microbial life was jig sawed together in a nebular cloud. However, given the turbulent nature of these nebular clouds it might seem that life would be instantly destroyed unless provided some protection against the life-neutralizing hazards that would be encountered in a free-floating environment constantly exposed to conditions deadly to life. This protection would in fact be provided by the same stellar mechanisms which dispersed those elements necessary for the establishment of life. Not just the seeds of life, but the material for the creation of new stars and planets are dispersed by these powerful supernovas (Joseph, 2010).
15. Expelled Planets and Planet Creation in a Nebular Cloud
Over 400 planets have been discovered orbiting in distant solar systems, including super-Jupiters and super-Earths (Bakos et al. 2007; Baraffe et al., 2008; Caballero, et al., 2007; Charbonneau, et al., 2009); planets several times the size and mass of our own Earth and the planet Jupiter. Therefore, it can be safely assumed that all stars are orbited by planets.
Although the accretion model of planet creation is the most widely accepted by consensus, how these planets are formed is still unknown. In the unlikely accretion scenario, dust particles and rocky debris swirling randomly in a proto-planetary cloud of dust bump into each other and instead of breaking apart into smaller fragments and scattering as they bounce off each other, they instead defy the laws of physics and stick together.
Planets cannot form secondary to the accretion of smaller particles which form larger objects. It defies classical physics, has never been observed, never replicated in a lab, simulations look bizarre, and is just not possible.
And yet, every student today is taught that when interstellar rocks collide in the pre-solar accretion disc, they stick together with high probability. The properties of solar system dust collected by the STARDUST sample return mission looked nothing like the grains expected to result from collisional accretion (Couvalt, 2006). Instead the particles were found to have a melted globule appearance and must have formed in a very high temperature medium. Suggesting that the particles originated in another solar system, and many dust grains exhibited tendrils suggestive of an explosive meteoritic origin.
Schild and Gibson (2009) adopt instead a more complex picture of planet formation in which two steps were involved, beginning with events soon after a "Big Bang" origin of the universe. At the time of plasma-to-gas transition in the early universe, when temperatures dropped below 5000 degrees Kelvin, an enormous viscosity change freed all of the atomic matter in the universe to collapse into planetary mass condensations of almost pure hydrogen. These would have aggregated together to form stars in some cases, but the process was inefficient and trillions of planetary cores were left behind (Gibson and Schild, 2009). Direct simulations with fine scale show the formation of these earth-mass bodies as the first structures to form in the young expanding universe (Diemand, Moore, and Stadel, 2005).
These big puffy planetary mass bodies would have floated around in the discs and halos of galaxies, and swept up interstellar dust and supernova ejecta (Schild , 2007). As these meteored in, the lighter grains would have vaporized and sunk to the center. Heavier rocks would have melted and fused with other rocky material. Because the planetary mass free roaming bodies would have had high temperature cores, the heavy core material would have become stratified by density and collected at the centers. Models of the physical structures of such brown dwarf objects have been given by Burrows et al. (1997).
An important chemical change would also have occurred at this time. Presently observed interstellar dust is observed in its oxide form (Brownlee, 2008), but any hot and vaporized oxides in a hydrogen atmosphere would have reduced the metals and created the rocky cores below oceans of water observed today. In the standard pre-stellar accretion disc theory model taught today, the existence of solar system planets like Earth, Mercury, and Mars with metallic iron cores are a mystery.
Thus, according to Schild and Gibson (2009; Schild, 2007; Gibson and Schild 2008) the formation of planets in our solar system and presumably elsewhere was a two-step process. An important new aspect of the scenario was demonstrated in a recent Hubble Space Telescope observation wherein 90 orbits of survey data were carefully analyzed to test the picture that many faint Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO's) would be found as the left-over rocks that would have collected to make planets by collisional accretion. Whereas 90 smaller KBO's were expected, only 3 were found (Bernstein, 2004), causing NASA scientists to conclude that the planet formation event appeared to have more the character of collisional fragmentation than collisional accumulation. This obviously requires the pre-solar cores to have come from some earlier process in the universe. Planet mass objects not related to any nearby sun are now being routinely found in infrared surveys (Cruz et al, 2009).
A further property of solid sub-planet bodies in the outer solar system also seems to require a formation process unrelated to the collisional accumulation scenario. Observations of these KBO's show a significant excess of binary objects (Stephens and Noll 2006). Only single objects would be expected from the collisional accretion process, whereas strong binarity would be expected from the early universe fragmentation process. A further surprising result of direct Hubble Space Telescope imaging is that in their densities, they are dust-like, not rock-like, with an apparent pulverized internal structure (Trilling and Bernstein, 2006).
The only other way two colliding rocks are going to stick together is if either or both are very hot, soft, and sticky; in which case neither could really be considered a "rock" but a hot molten mush. Where would this hot mush come from? Certainly not from a proto-star. The new sun, in this solar system, was 40% cooler than the modern sun (Sackman et al. 1993). The new solar system was not hot, it was cold.
Consider the scenario for the creation of the Moon. It has been estimated that during the accretion period, within 30 million years after the formation of the solar system, Earth was struck by a Mars-sized planet (Jacobsen, 2005). These two planets did not stick together and did not form a larger planet. Others believe around 4 billion years ago, a Mars-sized planet hit Earth with so much force that the ejected mass became the Moon (Belbruno and Gott III 2005; Poitrasson et al. 2004, Rankenburg et al. 2006). Therefore, not only did these colliding planets not grow by accretion, but Earth became smaller when a mass that became the Moon was ripped away.
And yet, be it 4.6 billion years ago or 4 billion years ago, Earth and this Mars sized object had to be fairly hot due to the heat generated by the constant bombard by comets and asteroids. Obviously they were not hot and soft enough. But where would they get the necessary heat? Certainly not from the new born sun. The only source for the extreme heat necessary to make these planets sufficiently hot and sticky would be a supernova.
When a star becomes a red giant, it loses between 40% to 80% of its mass (Kalirai et al. 2007; Liebert et al. 2005a,b; Wachter et al. 2008), thereby reducing the gravitational hold on its planets some of which will then be expelled from the dying solar system perhaps hundreds of thousands or hundreds of millions of years before supernova (Joseph 2009a). Presumably, these expelled planets wonder the galaxy or become a member of the growing nebular cloud on the outskirts of the dying solar system. If so, even if these expelled planets still harbored microbial life beneath their surface, they would likely be exposed to additional life forms within these nebular clouds. As is the case of microbes on Earth, they would also likely horizontally transfer DNA (Joseph 2000, 2009b,c).
When a star explodes in a supernova, ejected planets, dust, and rocky debris within the growing nebular cloud, would be heated by the blast. The surface of small and large planets might melt. Some of those hot melting planets might collide or be whirled together, along with other very hot debris, forming a larger mass (cf. Baraffe et al., 2008). Only in this way, following exposure to a supernova (at just the right distance) could expelled debris, moons, or broken planets become sufficiently hot so as to merge together and/or grow by accretion.
The above model applies to moons and planets which have been expelled from a dying solar system prior to supernova. That is, even if shattered, some of these expelled planets could grow by accretion. On the other hand, if these planets were already formed, then the hot and sticky accretion model does not explain planet formation, but only accounts for why a planet might grow larger in size.
Every time a star becomes a red giant many of its planets may be expelled (Joseph 2009a). However, when a star supernovas, it may then create new planets, from scratch, beginning with a molten iron core.
Stars that die eject carbon, hydrocarbon, oxygen, silicon, sulfur, chlorine, argon, sodium, potassium, calcium, scandium, titanium, manganese, cobalt, nickel and molten iron into the interstellar medium (Burbidge, et al. 1957; Clayton, 2003; Gehrz, 1988). Massive amounts of molten iron would also be hurled into these nebular clouds. Everything which comes into contact with that hot molten iron would be expected to stick. This molten iron would then form the core of a newly forming planet which grows by accretion. Therefore, planets formed in this fashion would be expected to have an iron core--as is the case with Earth and the other planets of this solar system (Baraffe et al., 2008; Gonzalez et al., 2001; Saumon et al., 2004).
In fact, not only the planets of this solar system, but exo-planets the size of Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, and those several times the size of Jupiter, all appear to have a core made up of heavy metals (Baraffe et al., 2008; Sato, et al. 2005). These metals could have only been produced by a supernova and its collapse (Muno, et al., 2005), and these metals must have been blistering hot and molten, thereby allowing other material to stick instead of bouncing off and shattering into dust.
It is believed that supernova were more common in the early stages of galaxy formation of the Milky Way (Gonzalez et al., 2001). Hundreds of millions of black holes may orbit within this galaxy (McClintock, 2004; Schödel, et al., 2006); the collapsed remnants of hundreds of millions of supernova. Therefore, it can be assumed that the first planets and billions of subsequent planets were formed after the death of these first stars which comprised the newly forming Milky Way. As such, nebular clouds, and the wilds of space, may be home to trillions of orphan planets. In fact "super-Jupiters," over 5 times the mass of Jupiter, have been discovered in the Orion cloud (Bihain, et al., 2009).
There is every reason to suspect that the first nebular clouds created during the early stages of galaxy formation contained not just the seeds of carbon based life, but hot molten metals and irons, as well as dust and other materials. Therefore, the first planets must have been formed in these first nebular clouds, such that a variety of stellar objects including proto-planets and super planets developed by accretion as this dust and material stuck to the hot molten iron produced by supernova. As these planets were formed, they were exposed to the seeds of life.
To use a metaphor, these planets could be likened to ovum in a nebular womb. These planets became fertilized with these seeds of life, and provided the protection for life to flourish, diversify, and evolve from proto-life, to complex microbial life--and this is how life, in this galaxy began.
The story does not end there. Nebular clouds give birth to stars.
16. A Star is Born in the Nebular Womb of Life
Many of the exo-planets so far discovered are super-Jupiters (Bakos et al. 2007; Baraffe et al., 2008; Caballero, et al., 2007). If super-super Jupiters also formed within nebular cloud (or if they were ejected into the cloud prior to supernova), their tremendous gravity would attract gasses within the cloud including and especially hydrogen, thereby becoming super-hydrogen-gas giants. In fact, exoplanets the size of Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, and those several times the size of Jupiter, have been determined to consist predominantly of hydrogen and helium (Bakos et al., 2007; Baraffe et al., 2008); gasses which were captured by the gravity of their heavy metal cores.
Where would these Super-Earth obtain their water? In the Big Bang model, most of it appeared when interstellar dust was collected by the primordial object when the metallic oxides were reduced in the hydrogen atmosphere to metallic cores covered by oceans of water. Those free-floating in a nebular cloud would obtain it from water, ice, and liquid vapor within the cloud. If the ice were solid, then in response to the heat generated by supernova, that ice-water would melt, some of which would seep beneath the planet surface where it would remain liquid (cf Schwegler et al., 2001). And where there is water, there is life.
By contrast, Earth-like and even Super-Earths would have insufficient gravity to trap significant amounts of hydrogen and helium. This would not be the case with Super Jupiters which are mostly hydrogen and helium (Baraffe et al., 2008; Rafikov, 2006).
If the pressure and density of hydrogen in the centre of these super-hydrogen giants became great enough and temperatures hot enough a thermonuclear reaction would be triggered, and it would ignite, with the exploding, expanding thermal energy countering the gravitational forces of contraction thereby creating equilibrium and a full blown star. In fact, super-Jupiters the size of low mass stars have been detected (Caballero et al., 2007). These super-jupiters are massive enough to trigger and ignite deuterium-fusion (Saumon et al., 1996) leading to a thermo-nuclear reaction and thus a full blown sun. Five billion years ago, this is how our own story and our own solar system begins (Joseph 2009a).
Therefore, while residing within these nebula, and following the targeting by quasars shooting streams of hydrogen into these clouds, these super-hydrogen gas giants might acquire more hydrogen, becoming denser, and then ignite, becoming proto-stars, and this is how new stars, such as our sun, are formed.
Indeed, a single star which undergoes supernova may produced a nebular cloud in which dozens, hundreds, even thousands of protostars, which, like our own sun, come to be ringed with planets. However, these planets may have been ejected from the parent star or they were fashioned within a nebular cloud following supernova.
By contrast, on worlds with a more hospitable environment, and which come to orbit within the habitable zone of their sun, it can be predicted that life would flourish, diversify, and then evolve into increasingly complex, sentient and intelligent animals. This would mean that intelligent beings may have evolved on billions of planets and may have reached our own level of neurological and cognitive development billions of years before Earth became a twinkle in god's eye (Joseph 2000; Joseph and Schild 2010).
18. Conclusions: Life in the Milky Way Began 10-Billion to 13- Billion Years Ago.
Life gives rise to life and stars give rise to stars, its an endless cycle which has been on going for all eternity. In an infinite universe life has had infinite time to become established an infinite number of times (Joseph 2010). Hoyle's (1974) estimates of a trillion years, is meaningless given infinite time and infinite combinations.
And yet, an infinite amount of time was not necessary. Given the trillions upon trillions of galaxies which exist in this Hubble length (observable) universe, and the trillions of trillions of supernovas which must have taken place in these galaxies collectively, and thus the innumerable stellar and nebular clouds which may be filled with all the ingredients necessary for life, it can be deduced that life would have been created independently in other galaxies, including the Milky Way long before our planet was fashioned. The cosmos may be awash with every conceivable form of life, even if life, by a miracle of chance, began only once.
At present, three domains of life are recognized: archae, bacteria, and eukaryotes. There is considerable debate about the nature of nanobacteria (Ciftcioglu et al., 2006; Martel and Young 2008) and controversy over evidence suggestive of a DNA genome (Miller et al., 2004). However, if alive, nonobacteria would expand the domains to four. Viruses are not considered to be alive, but if they were, their inclusion could expand the domains of life to five or more, i.e. viruses with RNA genomes, viruses with DNA genomes, endogenous retroviruses. What other domains of life are yet to be discovered?
That the three branches of life all possess a DNA-based genome, and the fact that viruses have an RNA or DNA genome, coupled with evidence suggestive of nanobacteria DNA, could be considered evidence for common origins from a single source. On the other hand, the universality of the DNA-genome and the genetic code, may indicate that DNA is a "cosmic imperative" and a requirement for life. If the latter proposition is true, then the different domains of life and of quasi-life, could have arisen in completely different environments and localized conditions, e.g. nebular clouds, the interior of comets, or in the case of viruses within RNA-worlds.
There is every reason to suspect that nebular clouds contain not just the seeds of carbon based life, but a variety of stellar objects including proto-planets and super planets fashioned via accretion around molten metals and iron produced by supernova and its collapse (Joseph, 2010; Muno, et al., 2005). These planets could be likened to ovum in a nebular womb already swarming with the seeds of life. Therefore, be they ejected planets, or those which were formed following supernova, each of these planets could have been fertilized with these seeds of life, and could have provided the protection for life to flourish, diversify, and evolve from proto-life, to complex microbial life--and this is how life in this galaxy began.
Assuming life in this galaxy began in this galaxy (and not transferred from another galaxy) it can be concluded that the first proto-organisms were fashioned in nebular clouds and perhaps within or on the planets circulating within these clouds. The first self-replicating proto-organism need have been fashioned only once to begin making variable copies of itself. Likewise, the first microbes likely evolved in these clouds and on these nebular planets.
Furthermore, be it within a nebular cloud, or a planet with a unique environment, life had to arise only once, in this galaxy, or in some other galaxy, to be dispersed within this galaxy. Again, given the unknown age of the universe, and the fact that since it was first conceived the birth date of the Big Bang continues to be pushed backwards in time, and will likely continue to be pushed back as ever more distant galaxies are detected, life, therefore, could have begun hundreds of billions of years ago, even in a Big Bang Universe.
Be it proto-organism or microbe, the descendants of these life forms, would likely contaminate every planet formed within the nebula-proto-planetary disc and infect those planets which were ejected prior to supernova and which came to dwell within these clouds.
Even if we accept the standard accretion model, where a proto-star ignites and where planets begin to form via accretion in the proto-planetary disc, the debris which becomes part of these growing planets would also be expected to harbor life (Joseph 2009a); all the constituent ingredients for creating a planet or a proto-planetary disc had to originate in a nebular cloud which in turn was likely already swarming with life.
Again, only one microbe need to have been fashioned as it could rapidly multiply, diversify and create a trillion copies of itself within a matter of days. And once these life forms proliferate, they could and can easily spread to other planets and accumulate in nebular clouds. Through powerful solar winds which can blow airborne microbes into space and into a nebular cloud (Joseph 2009a), via comets passing through these clouds, and following bolide impact with life-containing ejecta landing on other worlds or coming to be flung completely outside the solar system (Burchell 2010; Joseph, 2000; Wickramasinghe et al., 2009) life would easily spread from planet to planet and solar system to solar system, such that within 10 billions years the entire galaxy would be contaminated with life.
Any planet with oceans, atmosphere, and surface dwelling organisms will inevitably seed surrounding moons and planets with microbes and possibly eukaryotic life. Microbial organisms from a single source may even come to be distributed on a galaxy-wide scale. Because dispersal and contamination is ongoing, eventually the descendants of these original sojourners from the stars would be hurled back and forth between planets and solar systems and come into contact and exchange DNA with their microbial "cousins" via horizontal gene transfer (Joseph 2000, 2009b,c). When the descendants of some of these microbes fell to Earth, they possessed the genetic libraries and the genetic information for replicating life forms which long ago evolved on other worlds (Joseph, 2000, 2009b,c).
Therefore, even if just a single living entity first formed over 10 billion years ago, then it can be predicted that the descendants of this life form were deposited on innumerable planets long before the creation of our solar system. However, based on statistics we can predict that life was not fashioned just once, but probably in numerous galaxies, and not just in this galaxy alone.
Our galaxy is home to an estimated 400 billion stars. The Andromeda Galaxy is even larger, with an estimated trillion stars (Mould et al., 2008). Each of these stars may have been produced in a nebular cloud upon being targeted by a quasar. There are trillions upon trillions of galaxies, and there have been trillions of nebular clouds, each providing all the ingredients necessary for chance combinations to create life.
Our Milky Way galaxy is 13.6 billion years old (Pasquini et al., 2005) and supernova were more numerous and more common when this galaxy began to form. Many other nearby galaxies have also been determined to be over 13 billion years in age ( Pace and Pasquini, 2004). Therefore, it can be deduced that beginning over 13 billion years ago in this galaxy, the first steps toward creating life and the planets to harbor life, began in this galaxy almost 9 billion years before Earth was formed.
Therefore, we conclude: Life on Earth came from nebular clouds, and from other planets, and most likely, from other galaxies. Our galaxy, and the cosmos is likely swarming with life. The seeds of life swarm throughout the cosmos.
Our ancient ancestors, journeyed here, from the stars.
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