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The Nature of Life and Its Potential to Survive pp 385–442Cite as

A Thesis on Life, the Universe and Almost Everything

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Part of the book series: Astronomers' Universe ((ASTRONOM))

Abstract

Throughout this book we’ve presented life as something of an inevitability. Life began on Earth not because of a series of random, rare events but because there was a high probability that its chemistry would naturally produce systems that we would recognize as living organisms. The chemicals used by life on Earth are ubiquitous in the universe, and thermodynamic entropy demands the growth of self-replicating structures through the release of energy (Chaps. 3 and 4). In this context, can we consider life as an inevitable outcome elsewhere (perhaps everywhere) in the cosmos if the chemistry is appropriate?

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Asgard archaebacterium has the same actin-based cytoskeleton as eukaryotes, confirming that modern eukaryotes derived theirs from an archaeal-like ancestor.

  2. 2.

    Possible earlier supercontinents include: Ur (Vaalbara)/Slave/Arctica at 2.5–3.7 billion years ago and Kenorland at 2.4–2.7 billion years ago. Although supercontinents are possible at this time, the area of planet covered by them becomes smaller as we go back in time, and Ur (if it existed) was likely smaller than present-day Asia. Moreover, the location, timing and arrangements of these earlier “super” continents are highly contentious. For example, note the overlapping dates. Two separate supercontinents can’t exist in overlapping time slots.

  3. 3.

    There is more on this in The Exo-Weather Report.

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    David S. Stevenson

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Stevenson, D.S. (2017). A Thesis on Life, the Universe and Almost Everything. In: The Nature of Life and Its Potential to Survive. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52911-0_9

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