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HomeScience & TechExoplanet Life and The Origin of Life on Earth

Exoplanet Life and The Origin of Life on Earth

Want to know the secrets of Exoplanet life and the origin of life on Earth? The discovery of scientific evidence for life on planets outside the Solar System has far-reaching consequences for comprehending our sources on Earth.

Life can be found all over the planet. It is present in the air we breathe as microbes and has spread into every nook and cranny, including deep below Earth’s oceanic crust at the bottom of the sea. All lifeforms on Earth have the same principles for some core functions, showing they are connected and can be traced back to a universal common ancestor. However, it is still uncertain when and how life originated. Similarly, whether it genuinely evolved only once, giving rise to the vast but singular type of life, we observe today appears implausible but remains unknown. In short, we do not comprehend the beginning of life. We must determine whether it resulted from a lucky chain of random events occurring under precise conditions or a logical and natural result of ordinary planetary history.

Coordination of Attempts to Investigate The Origins of Life

Several universities and research institutes have begun coordinating efforts in the form of interdisciplinary networks or research centres to answer where we (and all other lifeforms on Earth) come from a natural sciences perspective. A recent example is the new ETH Zurich Centre for the Origin and Prevalence of Life.

Exoplanet life

One of the primary motivators for these centres was the realization that studying life’s origin(s) necessitates a genuinely multidisciplinary approach. Given the complexity of the subject, more than a single discipline alone needs sufficient knowledge and skill. A typical example is the formation of complex organic molecules, such as RNA and its precursors, which are thought necessary for life. While pre-biotic chemistry aims to reveal which formation pathways and reaction networks these molecules can be formed through and with which essential ingredients, it is critical to consider the ambient conditions on early Earth under which these reactions may have occurred. First atmospheric temperatures and pressures. It included what? What’s the surface pH? Chemists don’t usually care about these issues, yet they’re critical for origin-of-life investigations.

The Significance of Astrophysics

Exoplanet Life

Astrophysicists are heavily active in research activities at ETH Zurich and other centres and research networks because they can offer critical pieces of the puzzle. For example, consider the young Earth’s radiation environment: how much radiation was delivered by the young Sun and how much got up on the Earth’s surface rather than being sheltered by the atmosphere? The high-energy flux given by the ultraviolet region of the Solar spectrum is critical here. Photons are a unique, abundant energy source that can trigger chemical reactions. However, due to their high energy, photons can break apart molecules and hinder the creation of more complex compounds. Astrophysics helps explain the design of planetary systems and the transport of chemical building blocks to the young Earth. Aside from studying the remnants of the Solar System’s formation period, such as comets and asteroids, a prominent area of research in that context is determining the (chemical) composition and physical features of planet-forming circumstellar discs around young stars.

Beyond the Obvious: Exoplanet Science’s Role

While these activities are directly related to the beginning of life on Earth, exoplanet science plays a crucial role that may need to be clarified at first glance. With over 5,000 exoplanets (planets circling stars other than our Sun) currently known, in-depth analysis of these objects is becoming increasingly necessary – and technologically achievable – in addition to discovering new extrasolar worlds.

Exoplanet Life

Furthermore, in discussing Exoplanet life and the origin of life on Earth. To that end, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to shed light on whether or not small, terrestrial exoplanets, objects with sizes and masses similar to Earth, that low orbit luminosity but highly active, excellent dwarf stars can retain an atmosphere despite the high-energy radiation output of their stars. However, complete atmospheric characterization of these objects, i.e. generating an overview of the critical constituents of the atmosphere, will most likely be beyond JWST’s capabilities. In the long run, however, determining the atmospheric composition of dozens of Earth-like exoplanets is one of the primary goals of exoplanet science. The atmosphere encodes crucial information about the planetary environment. It can also contain spectral signatures that suggest the presence of a biosphere on a planet, which is especially relevant in the context of origin-of-life studies. As a result, scientists can pinpoint which planets may contain life by determining what exoplanet atmospheres are made of. For example, oxygen, created by plants and algae (i.e., energy), currently accounts for around 21% of the Earth’s atmosphere. It makes noticeable traces in atmospheric absorption bands for an external observer from a distant vantage point. As a result, oxygen detection in an exoplanet’s atmosphere could indicate the presence of life.

 Methane or nitrous oxide are intriguing atmospheric biosignatures. Several research groups attempt to understand which gases can be added to this list. The investigation of what abiotic activities could also lead to the accumulation of a considerable number of these gases in a planetary atmosphere replicating the signal given by biological activity, is a vital component of this effort. The simultaneous detection of two biosignatures that successfully hint at a severe chemical disequilibrium, such as oxygen and methane, is widely regarded as the most robust and trustworthy signal to date.

How does this relate to life’s origin? Only on Earth is life known to exist in the universe. Finding signs of life on another planet orbiting another star could provide the first proof that, rather than the origin of life, we are dealing with the origins of life and that life may be far more broadly distributed. This could imply that the paths and processes that lead from non-living materials to living organisms are more resilient and broadly applicable rather than being mainly confined to the conditions encountered on early Earth. This suggestion would be especially significant if the star-planet systems used to make such inferences differed significantly from the Sun-Earth system regarding fundamental features such as masses, temperatures, and compositions.

LIFE’s Mission

Exoplanet Life

In this scenario, the LIFE mission is no longer regarded as the next (or any) exoplanet space mission. LIFE can directly discover dozens of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting various types of host stars, characterize their atmosphere composition, and hunt for biosignatures. As a result, if done correctly, the LIFE mission’s breadth and potential scientific legacy extends far beyond astrophysics and touches on one of humanity’s most fundamental problems. As a result, collaborating with other disciplines to establish what atmospheric signals to search for and under what conditions such signs provide strong evidence for biological activity is critical. Furthermore, comprehensive statistical frameworks that allow researchers to quantify these statements must be established and confirmed. More importantly, as we gain a better understanding of how life may have evolved on Earth, we will be able to start formulating hypotheses for which stars and planet types are more (or less) likely to contain signs of extra-terrestrial life, using life as we know it – and that is all we have – as a reference. Work in this area has already begun in some of the previously stated collaborations, effectively spanning numerous scientific disciplines. More systematic efforts are still required. The findings will be incorporated directly into the LIFE initiative’s activities, increasing the likelihood that LIFE will be fundamentally transformative in our understanding of the origins of life.

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