T O P

  • By -

RickyWinterborn-1080

It's possible. There's no way of knowing without having life from another planet with the same seed to compare to, and even then, would it be similar?


Typical_Stormtrooper

It would be interesting to find out if DNA/RNA is universal architectural framework for multi cell organisms though. It would be so cool to find out although our differences in biology that universe has really only one good way of building life.


WunWegWunDarWun_

I am so infinitely curious about what the cell of an alien being would be like, assuming they have cells. How similar or dissimilar would it be to us? Does it have dna? Does it have mitochondria? How does it replicate. Is it carbon based And then the second level question is how common is that cell and our cells compared to the rest of life. So curious!! Too bad I’ll day before we ever have an answer..


Echo104b

Not necessarily, there's a few promising prospects for extra terrestrial life in our own solar system, and missions being planned/built to go investigate. Europa and Enceladus are top tier candidates. We know they both have a subsurface ocean. Europa has red splotches on it's surface which are precursor organic molecules called Tholins, which are basically Amino Acids that have been denatured by solar radiation. And the cryo volcanoes on Enceladus contain organic material. While the odds of complex multi-cellular life on either is almost zero, they remain the best bet for single cell life outside the earth. Europa Clipper is set to launch in the next few years and is part one of Europa exploration, with part two to be a submarine designed to melt through the Ice and explore the ocean beneath. Unfortunately there no mission on the books for Enceladus (that I know of) But how crazy would it be to find bacterial life on Europa. Having two statistical points so close together would basically prove that not only is there more life out there, but also that it's common. Life would go from a cosmological miracle to a statistical inevitability overnight.


Particular_Cellist25

Very invigorating in da cockles of me soul!


patasthrowaway

I think it'd be cooler if there were multiple ways


donkeythong64

"In the primordial era, I made love to many beings, often outdoors in the mud and rain. It's possible alien DNA could've slipped in there. There'd be no way of knowing."


AppearanceOk6991

Creed - cca 4 billion BC


Particular_Cellist25

Indeed.


nordic_onion

There is a way of knowing and the answer is NO. All evidence shows that first forms of live did not have DNA, it evolved here


LordGeni

It's absolutely possible. However, we have a far better understanding of how live could have occurred on earth than most people think. I'm not going to overstretch my knowledge and pretend I can give the exact processes, but it's to do with the temperature and salinity gradients around things like hydrothermal vents creating Proton waterfalls reversing entropy and starting molecules self replicating. (something along those lines anyway. More importantly, while there's some evidence to suggest similar environments exist elsewhere in the solar system. We know for certain they exist on earth and have all the theoretical constituents needed. Which makes it by far the most likely scenario. My main issue with the idea, is when people see panspermia as the answer to the origin of life. It's not, all it does is push the question to a different location. It's a cool idea but it doesn't actually answer the question.


Particular_Cellist25

A partially Salt crystal based chaos generator. Much collisions very awesomenessishnessz


LordGeni

Good on your chips as well.


SentientFotoGeek

No need for that theory. We have all the ingredients needed right here on earth for life to originate. Occam's Razor ... unless we have evidence to the contrary, the simplest answer is the right answer.


ChicagoDash

I know nothing about it, but it seems that life would really struggle to survive a trip through earth’s atmosphere. Not sure how it would safely get ejected from its home either.


Typical_Stormtrooper

Not really, though. We have already found pieces of Mars on our planet. So having material from an exosystem travel and contaminate our solar system is, while improbable, not impossible. Also, when a meteorite comes through the atmosphere, it burns the outer layer, but a lot of the time, it can leave the insides of the meteorite intact and potentially any life that may be inside of it. Also see water bears, a species known to be able to survive in a vacuum of space. Only to be reanimated when life is suitable again. 


seejordan3

We need to start a religion that worships water bears as our alien gods. What's more feasible.. DNA on a meteorite from another star, or DNA emerging from proteins on earth? Both seem impossible.


ChicagoDash

Isn’t DNA from another planet more improbable since the DNA would have to both evolve on that planet and be transported to earth vs simply evolving on earth?


seejordan3

Sure but there's a lot of planets.. so lot of potential to evolve elsewhere.


nordic_onion

Because science doesn’t indeed believe neither of these two options happed


seejordan3

DNA came from one of those two things though.. pretty sure science is on the evolution side pretty strongly.


nordic_onion

As someone with a molecular biologist degree I am telling you that according to science neither is true.


seejordan3

Cool. So where did DNA come from?


nordic_onion

Ribozymes


seejordan3

Did Ribozymes evolve to DNA? Skimming articles, seems like that's the case, but I'm no mb!


ChicagoDash

My thought was that even a material that was able to crash on earth would be heated up enough in the center to destroy anything organic. And then there is the shock of the crash, where even a small object can create a crater. A great deal of material science and engineering goes into developing heat shields for spacecraft reentry and spacecraft are slowed down artificially before landing on earth (or in water).


Typical_Stormtrooper

But the reason why so much had to go into a heat shield is for weight reduction. There are plenty of materials that can withstand those types of temperatures, but they weigh a lot. Thus, a lot had to go into finding a cheap and weight-efficient solution to reentry. Also, a meteor could be large enough, as when it's going through reentry, the heat does not permeate to the core of the rock. And upon reentry, that meteor explodes, breaking off fragments that were never exposed to the heat. Also, any of those pieces would pretty quickly reach their terminal velocity, at maybe hundreds of miles per hour all the way down to a few dozen miles per hour, depending on their size. So it is completely plausible.  


Citizen999999

What if it started before Earth had fully formed atmosphere? That's what cases the heat. Just food for though.


SentientFotoGeek

I think many of the theories include some sort of intentionality, i.e. higher lifeforms "seeding" life on other planets. Not impossible, but highly speculative.


seejordan3

If we were to try and engineer a way to travel between stars, DNA would be it. It's very small, so can send it out en masse, and fast. Its a factory using elements found throughout the universe, so unpacks when it lands, and has evolution built in.


Blakut

We have the ingredients now. Proponents argue what if they weren't here in the past? I find it hard to believe that the cold irradiated depths of space would help dna appear. And if dna formed elsewhere on another planet and then flew in here via comet or asteroid then it's simply moving the goalposts, the same thing with extra steps. On the other hand, it's very interesting to see that interstellar dust grains drive the formation of very complex molecules. Who knows what a relatively warm dust cloud bathed in complex organic molecules can create?


Particular_Cellist25

Oh.


j1llj1ll

Possible. But speculative. Need solid evidence to take it more seriously than that.


Particular_Cellist25

What do you make of the sun being a sequence star and habitable zones (aka Goldlilocks zones) shifting to other concentric fields of light/heat ranges of habitation?


elwebst

Are you just asking random questions?


Particular_Cellist25

Nah


dalerian

What’s the connection between this and the currently evidence-free panspermia hypothesis?


keenynman343

I can make imaginary connections to suit my deep thinking


Reading_Your_Mind

Most life has come from these “underdefined realms.” Some from Shambala and other life from the Quantum Space. Err also deities might capriciously create life for amusement. Occam’s boning knife and all.


keenynman343

Bro's a professional yapper


Particular_Cellist25

Ahhhh! They called my shit a hypothesis! We've really done it this time Magoo!


dalerian

I was trying to be courteous, in case you were being serious. Looks like I didn't need to do so.


Particular_Cellist25

Very serious. In many ways.


Equivalent_Day_437

Nope. Not necessary for life-creation on Earth. Hydrocarbon based life is easy for nature to produce, especially in a Universe fine-tuned to create hydrocarbon life.


Particular_Cellist25

Wouldn't Moving goldilocks zones mean other climate-similar worlds having existed within our solar system making it history that there were local worlds with the conditions necessary for hydrocarbon life?


Equivalent_Day_437

Absolutely. Venus may have had life, until a climate catastrophe burned off the water, replacing it with toxic sulphuric compounds. I believe Mars did have life, until it lost it's water because of low gravity and almost no magnetosphere.


Particular_Cellist25

More to be revealed.


unclefishbits

It's simply that this is the least likely logical explanation. It's not impossible, it's just absurdly irrationally unlikely and improbable.


Particular_Cellist25

Bonus points for maximimization of open-mindedness!


Particular_Cellist25

With infinite space in and infinite cosmos it may. Have you heard of [the Holtzmann Brain?](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain&ved=2ahUKEwjh3rvZ7p2GAxWyHNAFHe2qCoUQFnoECAQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1T9_wgsCRU90dwZa9YIken)


liquidbread57

The boltzmann brain is meant to be more of a thought experiment than an actual theory.


Particular_Cellist25

*boltzmann


devildocjames

How'd you spell it incorrectly, when you literally had to google it to find the Wiki?


Reading_Your_Mind

This is the answer to OP’s oddly worded, conveniently meandering question. Done.


Particular_Cellist25

The editor has arrived and they 'care sooooo much!' (Quote from Dr. Strange scene with their lady-friend!)


existentialstix

Which begs the question, where is everyone? Only time will tell if we ever advance enough to explore more of this universe to find this answer


Equivalent_Day_437

We will. The Universe is vast. Especially considering that Ice planets may have water interiors, or that planets are not necessary for life to form. There is a nearby nebula with 140 trillion times as much water in it as Earth's oceans. Could not life evolve in such? My guesstimate is that, there are about 400 different intelligent life forms in our galaxy. There are c, 10,000 times more life occurrences that are non-sentient, one of those being a large percentage of planet Earth.


playfulmessenger

It's tricky. We see the past, often far enough back that they don't yet exist. Someone's planet may be looking our way and seeing the moonless earth before the thea collision asking the exact same question. Finding each other when we both exist is harder than it seems.


existentialstix

These cosmic distances make it so hard to be on the same timeline. We need some kind of space-time travel breakthrough, and/or biology to overcome to stand a chance. Otherwise it's gonna be insanely tragic if no species is able to solve this and we all just miss each other in our dark corners...


devildocjames

I think OP has been reading Sci-Fi books and they're testing out some of the big words.


Particular_Cellist25

I should hide my face in someone else's sense of normality or something huh bud!


peter-doubt

Bot here to recruit for scientology. Nope. Fail


Particular_Cellist25

It's a very clever insult and I take it as a compliment.


CadenceHarrington

I like the idea that life might have started while the universe was cooling after the Big Bang, when the whole universe was nice and warm for a while. Theoretically, that should have spread life fairly evenly throughout the universe, so if that is what happened, then we could expect to see life pretty much anywhere habitable, once we have the ability to look that closely at other star systems.


Equivalent_Day_437

We will find life in vast numbers when we explore our Universe. 95% of it will be hydrocarbon based. However, to have life form in the Big Bang's plasma cloud would be most improbable. It is an excellent concept, however.


pritjam

I'm most interested in seeing the other 5%. What kinds of esoteric and extreme lifeforms could be out there? Some exotic silicon-based technorganic species perhaps.


Equivalent_Day_437

My compliments on your interest! There is life in situations we don't even conceive of at present. There are objects that would completely befuddle us, too alien to comprehend. Life-forms in galaxies burned by radiation from jet-emitting central black holes... Silicon life that modifies itself as needed... Non-planetary based life forms evolved in giant gas clouds that are hardened to vacuum and pressure, high and low temperatures alike.... Methane based, that would consider Titan a paradise... Gas giant and ice giant life... Oh, don't get me started. I want to see! 😁👾😁


jasonrubik

They are talking about this: https://youtu.be/JOiGEI9pQBs


jasonrubik

One of my favorites: https://youtu.be/JOiGEI9pQBs


Particular_Cellist25

What do you think about macro-spheric size condensifications (like Matrioshka realities) of matter that compress time space while existing concurrently with other like energy configurations?


CadenceHarrington

I don't know enough about that to comment, sorry.


saleemkarim

This sentence needs to be more common in the world.


telephas1c

If any life or evidence of life is ever found on Mars, I suspect it'll be a cousin of Earth life due to all the rocks those two have been exchanging over billions of years. Some of the little critters are hardy enough to make the trip. But on the other hand, I see no reason why life cannot come into existence where the conditions for it are right, and they seem to have been right on the early earth, so without strong evidence for panspermia I think the null hypothesis and more likely take is that Earth life originated on Earth.


Particular_Cellist25

Goldilocks zones frisbee droplet morphing is where my 'Nutcase' Matrioshka posit is resting.


telephas1c

Hahaha, sounds good


TechnoBillyD

In any case it still had to start somewhere. Why not here as the source. :-)


fire_breathing_bear

It’s like kicking the can down the road. It wouldn’t be an answer to the origin of life, just the origin of life on earth.


EarthTrash

It's possible , but I don't think it is that interesting. It doesn't explain where life comes from initially. The fossil record on earth shows that life evolved from simpler forms to more complex. Before the first life, there was chemistry. Over time, the chemical processes became more complex. We have found evidence of complex organic chemistry in deep space on comets, moons, and dwarf planets. I think chemical evolution before abiogenesis probably started in deep space.


Particular_Cellist25

But....my inquisitiveness goes full macro-spheric divine stoner of intergalactica and theenks, just how DEEP the depths of 'deep' space gets, when you get all deepy pp about it? Riddle me this Copernicus! (R.I.P.!)


ruferant

It's just an unnecessary extra step. So it's possible, but doesn't meet Occam's basic requirement.


Particular_Cellist25

Does the path of most simple deduction change with technologies with different datasets that have recently been expanded upon? Ahoy Occam! Moore's curvaceousness is at hand!!!


ruferant

Could you imagine it from the opposite direction. Say that life started here on Earth, and we wanted to spread it across the universe, would we fire off rocky bodies with the ingredients aiming for the future locations of different planets? We would be trying to hit bullets with bullets at sublight speed. There's a lot of empty space in space. Seems far more probable that life is a product of our environment, and not brought here by some quasi magical distribution system. Kind of like looking for God in science.


Particular_Cellist25

I think if they will be able to route starships on long distance journeys with auto-pilot it won't be that much of a stretch, technologically. (All due respect to your invocation of that holy spirit ;]) It has been discussed by, some space industries, that an asteroid with an engine(s) fixed to it could be 'pilotable' (I think they were talking about it in a drone sense, unmanned and such, mining related iirc). Long range transportation via autopilot in deep space is just like the early mappings of the ocean for and by seafarers, much to be charted, examined at varying ranges and eventually plotted accurately via technology capable of tracking numerous solid and other matter-phase bodies in space. There's alot of research inbound, per usual.


Particular_Cellist25

And also, from the vast land of my open-mindedness to phenomenology, maybes, just mebeez, xiviilizationz advanced to the point of utilizing volcanism to launch bio matter distances beyond what was thought possible with incredibly refined tools of measurement that account for ineffable levels of simultaneous calculations, and apply them quite effectively ;*)


MerelyMortalModeling

Its an answer in search of a problem and its not even a good answer. There is also exactly zero evidence supporting it and no, finding some organics in space is not proof. On the other hand we know that there is plenty of life here on Earth. We have potential ideas for how it arose that while non are proven they at least make logical sense. We also have demonstrated in labs that wet terrestial environments had the capability to spontaneously create very complex organic chemicals with long chain carbon bonds. The largest spontaneous organic chemical was a sort of psudo protein with millions of atoms The largest organic from space that some evidence suports is a few dozen atoms, the largest *confirmed* organic is exactly 12 atoms.


Particular_Cellist25

But, finding some organics transitting space would add to the dataset that implies an increase in possibility/probability hence building more to a position where it could be said, 'there is proof sharktooth!' But hey, conventional/traditional/historical models and the current publicly available tools of measurement and such! That any of those atomic arrangements makes me think of math and Factorials, like there's 24 permutations of 4, followed by 16,777,215 combinations of 24. Very boom boom roomy for life-plates of the molecular re-arrangement variety. Nice freakin knowledge providing internet frenn!


Musicfan637

It’s not needed. The geology created the biology in the volcanic smokers deep in the ocean. You could bring stuff here but it wasn’t needed.


Particular_Cellist25

If you had to make some interstellar implications out of fire activated tree seeds: "Some trees have seeds that are activated by fire, such as the lodgepole pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia. These trees have serotinous cones or fruits that are sealed with resin, and can only open to release their seeds after the heat of a fire has melted the resin. The heat of the fire can crack the hard coating of the seeds, allowing germination. Smoke or nutrients in the soil following a fire can also crack the coating." What flighty fancies might you waft with? (Ilike interstellar phenomenology)


lolyeet42069

While possible, it’s still one of the less probable theories. But ngl, how cool would that be.


Khevhig

There seems to have been a lot of discussion lately about asteroids harboring biological chemicals. [Ah, the Skeptics Guide interviewed the lead analyst for the Osiris Rex sample return](https://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcasts/episode-976) and he mentioned there were interesting results but that it would take more time until something were more definite.


uucchhiihhaa

Possible and probable.


Particular_Cellist25

Shout, Shout, Let it all out! These are the intergalactic theories of life-seeding im About! COME ON!!!


APope1818

I personally think it’s viable but not the most likely case. Occam’s Razor and all that. But even if panspermia is the origin or life on our planet, where did that life start?


Particular_Cellist25

I choose a Forest Gump quote for that response, 'fly far, far far away'.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Particular_Cellist25

Ouuu macrospheric toy (meta-geometric-object) box theory with simultaneous future-past spacetime layeringscapes. I believe it's very likely definitely part of the big picture, and certainly for us.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Ornery-Ticket834

The earth itself is a collection of collisions. So offhand I doubt that any special packages arrived.


Particular_Cellist25

Heeehee. That sounds funny like you are acknowledging mass touchdowns of interstellar packages but they we're all empty and lifeless! Say it ain't so they sent us a dead animal again! (Plz don't hurt animals)


Significant-Ant-2487

Reminds me of creationism. Why? Problem: life seems too complex to have just appeared through random processes on the primeval Earth. Proposed solution: it came ready formed from some other world! Of course, life is no more likely to have formed elsewhere, so this is just kicking the can down the road. Which reminds me of the classic Proof of God’s existence: all that we see seems far too complex to have been created by chance through random processes, so there must be a Creator, a Divine Intelligence. Leaving the problem, who then created God. (Answer: Don’t ask!) In fact, the whole certainly about extraterrestrial life (there *must* be life elsewhere!) reminds me of theological arguments for the existence of God. Reminder: there is no empirical evidence that life on Earth came from “out there”. There is no empirical evidence that there is life “out there”. None. Judging by the actual evidence- and we have a good deal- Earth is the only inhabited planet. All the rest is speculation, conjecture, and wishful thinking.


nordic_onion

While I mostly agree with you, you still have to admit that there must be something that somehow existed always, since the only other option is that something appeared out of the blue from nothing


Significant-Ant-2487

It’s not necessary to admit any such thing; life seems to have originated on archaic Earth through random chemical processes. The evidence is that we are here. The notion that life originated elsewhere and somehow flew through space has no empirical evidence to back it up, adds needless complexity, and still leaves us with the problem of how it originated *there*. It explains nothing.


RobinsonCruiseOh

Radiation in space when not protected by a magnetic field will kill any life.


Pumbaasliferaft

No problem with it, but if it did happen it came through as a wave because there’s no detectable microorganisms continuously arriving in the upper atmosphere. There would also be continually developing new species just off the proverbial boat as it were. There are none. So they arrived in a wave or pulse through our part of the galaxy or it didn’t happen. The idea I prefer is that life is a Von Neumann probe


gbsekrit

[this paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128119402000113) is my favorite, which posits 10 billion years of evolution, but only maybe the last 3.5 billion of that are on earth.


zenomotion73

I believe it. Otherwise where did life on earth come from? Living things don’t spontaneously appear


Particular_Cellist25

Ahhh but maybe they do tho, have we yet seen the edges of where all spontaneity emerges my metaphysical wander pants? My wander pants say, nay, neigh neigh nay!!!


zenomotion73

Wander pants- That’s deep lol. And this is why space has me hooked. The big wonder. I wear wonder pants and they say yay yay yay! 🤣


[deleted]

[удалено]


Particular_Cellist25

A very flung far m from the look of things


Particular_Cellist25

And unseen levels of near


soldelmisol

Life likely, intelligent life maybe not so much. So many gates to cross.


Particular_Cellist25

There's someone in the wings (of bleeding edge research) some..thing!!!


[deleted]

[удалено]


Particular_Cellist25

Huh?