Re: Building Life from Star-Stuff ...

> Jonathan Silverlight wrote:
In message <CGYTe.2053$7D1.2052@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Alfred A. Aburto Jr. <aburto@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

Tony,

Anthony Cerrato wrote:
"Alfred A. Aburto Jr." <aburto@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message
news:HWqTe.1188$eQ7.244@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/building_life_from_star-stuff.h
tml?592005
 This is a very nice reference, Al. I must take some time and
read it slowly and think on what it says. It seems to
support something I've been toying with for some time now,
namely, proto-life may have begun in space itself, even in
the absence of liquid H2O medium.


I have suspected the same too for a while. The fact that life "appears" on Earth at such an early time is what makes me think of that. A dust particle for example can have many organic compounds and H2O as well (not in liquid form though, but still). This is definitely a possibility to be considered (that elementary life, very primitive perhaps) actually started in space many billions of years before the Soalr System formed.

People scoff at panspermia as putting the problem off, but it may be (in space) where the problem is actually solved!


In a way, that's almost irrelevant, because the idea that the problem may have been solved on Earth is coming back into fashion!
The Miller-Urey experiment of the 1950s showed that you can get synthesis of prebiotic material on Earth, but then studies seemed to show that the early atmosphere wasn't reducing after all.
But last month I read a paper that showed the early Earth had a lot of free hydrogen (and posted to this group - subject 'Planetary Protection: X-ray Super-Flares Aid Formation of "Solar Systems" '- in response to another of your posts !)
Now Ron Baalke has posted a news story on sci.astro saying the same thing "Calculations favor reducing atmosphere for early earth" <http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/5513.html> 

Yes, very interesting! Real good news!

The authors of the above article also have another article, based on their research, which indicates what kind of gases to look for in young Earthlike planets. It is an article by Andrew Yee over at sci.astro on 9/7/2005. I post the whole thing below (since there was no url given):
---------------------------------------

University Communications
Washington University in St. Louis

Media Assistance:
Tony Fitzpatrick, Senior Science Editor
(314) 935-5272

Subject Matter Experts:
Bruce Fegley, (314) 935-4852
Laura Schaefer, Laboratory assistant, (314) 935-6310

Sept. 7, 2005

Field guide for confirming new earth-like planets described

'Light breaks where no sun shines'

By Tony Fitzpatrick

Astronomers looking for earth-like planets in other solar systems -- exoplanets -- now have a new field guide thanks to earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis.

Bruce Fegley, Ph.D., Washington University professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, and Laura Schaefer, laboratory assistant, have used thermochemical equilibrium calculations to model the chemistry of silicate vapor and steam-rich atmospheres formed when earth-like planets are undergoing accretion. During the accretion process, with surface temperatures of several thousands degrees Kelvin (K), a magma ocean forms and vaporizes.

"What you have are elements that are typically found in rocks in a vapor atmosphere," said Schaefer. "At temperatures above 3,080 K, silicon monoxide gas is the major species in the atmosphere. At temperatures under 3,080 K, sodium gas is the major species. These are the indicators of an earth-like planet forming."

At such red-hot temperatures during the latter stages of the exoplanets' formation, the signal should be distinct, said Fegley.

"It should be easily detectable because this silicon monoxide gas is easily observable," with different types of telescopes at infrared and radio wavelengths, Fegley said.

Schaefer presented the results at the annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, held Sept. 4-9 in Cambridge, England. The NASA Astrobiology Institute and Origins Program supported the work.

Forming a maser

Steve Charnley, a colleague at NASA AMES, suggested that some of the light emitted by SiO gas during the accretion process could form a maser -- Microwave Amplification by Stimulation Emission of Radiation. Whereas a laser is comprised of photons in the ultraviolet or visible light spectrum, masers are energy packets in the microwave image.

Schaefer explains: "What you basically have is a clump of silicon monoxide gas, and some of it is excited into a state higher than ground level. You have some radiation coming in and it knocks against these silicon monoxide molecules and they drop down to a lower state.

"By doing that, it also emits another photon, so then you essentially have a propagating light. You end up with this really very high intensity illumination coming out of this gas."

According to Schaefer, the light from newly forming exoplanets should be possible to see.

"There are natural lasers in the solar system," she said. "We see them in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus, and also in some cometary atmospheres."

In recent months, astronomers have reported earth-like planets with six to seven times the mass of our earth. While they resemble a terrestrial planet like earth, there has not yet been a foolproof method of detection. The spectra of silicon monoxide and sodium gas would be the indication of a magma ocean on the astronomical object, and thus an indication a planet is forming, said Fegley.

The calculations that Fegley and Schaefer used also apply to our own earth. The researchers found that during later, cooler stages of accretion (below 1,500 K), the major gases in the steam-rich atmosphere are water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon and nitrogen, with the carbon converting to methane as the steam atmosphere cools.

Related Links:

* Laura Schaefer's Web site
  http://solarsystem.wustl.edu/laura_schaefer.htm
* Planetary Chemistry Laboratory
  http://solarsystem.wustl.edu/
.

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