Life:The Shifting of the Paradigm. Excursions into Hell. Life in the Hadean. Earth "Life" began in Hell.

By -- Les Porter

Life:The Shifting of the Paradigm. Excursions into Hell. Life in the Hadean. [Hadean for "Hades."]

Image: NASA/JPL

But perhaps Hell was not as "hot" as we once thought?

No-one yet can say "exactly" when, or even "approximately" when, "Life" started on Earth. But it is one of the questions addressed in Oleg Abramov's and Stephen Mojzsis' recent paper published in Nature,[Nature 459, 419-422 (21 May 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08015; Received 12 December 2008; Accepted 24 March 2009]

Microbial habitability of the terrestrial biosphere during the late heavy bombardment will be used to address, in the future, the "earliest" possible formation of Earth life.

Abramov and Mojzsis use a computer as the primary vehicle for their temperature analysis excursion into the Hadean Eon. Of course, they have cups full of ancient mineral relics for their "hard" evidence. They have rocks from Greenland, rocks from asteroids, rocks from the Moon, and rocks from Mars. All of these speak volumes of informationn about the Eon of Hell on Earth.

Dante's explorative version, reached approximately the same "habitability conclusion"-level as is reached by the newer version of the journey to Hades, penned by the two reseachers based in Boulder, at the University of Colorado. Dante's pedestrian jaunt,with Virgil, into Hell alluded, in a way, that the temperature of Hell, [and it's climate,] permitted the existence of both warm and cold blooded miscreants -- for eternity. Dante's journey,of course, dealt with the "afterlife." The computer excursion of Abramov and Mojzsis, and their hard evidence is a look at "pre-life" and "pro-life" conditions, leading especially to pre-biotic chemistry.

However, in this current reflection upon the Earth's Early Times -- from 4.6 billion years ago (4.567 Gya) to about 3.8 or 3.9 Gya; containing the era of the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) -- there is called up the very idea of "when could life" really begin upon the Earth. There are many ideas, and there is some strong evidence written in stone of the past. Not all students agree that the earliest fossils are remnants and testimony to life at the time.

According to the new modeling, the new computer excursion "lowers" the planetary scale of death-dealing impact-effect 'temperatures' on Earth in the Hadean, to levels that would not preclude life.

Credit:www.astrobio.net/articles/images/earlyearth_banner1
Magazine Web Page from Astrobiology Magazine, published 22 May 2009

As more "extremophiles" are discovered, the concepts of what "life as we know it" is -- is stretched considerably.

Likewise, we do not know for certain what really "sterilizes" a planet. We think there are energy and material requirements. But we do not know them. We think the mixture of constituents, though broad, must be within "limits."  We think the heat of planet-formation and the millions of years of in-falling impacts must delay the onset of "life" until the "porridge" is just right!

We do not know what is "just right" for the porridge. Yet.

Maybe we need a Goldilocks? [One who "knows" just right!]

Effectively, this computer excursion by Abramov and Mojzsis into Hell perhaps pushes "back" the time of life formation on Earth, "closer to that time" of the formation of the Earth's Moon from impact [the Theia event]. The move to a point further in the past is something like asserting that life could not have been wiped out had it started as long as 4.3 billion years ago.

[I say "closer" [to that time], but the Moon formed very, very early in the formation-of-Earth-process -- possibly in the first 20 to 50 million years, since modeling of the materials of the Moon and the materials of the Earth's crust imply a warm crust had differentiated from heavier denser materials prior to the impact forming the Moon.

I ask the reader to consider how long it would take Earth's crust to cool if it were not subjected to an extended episode of impacts. Mankind has solid dates for the ages of chondritic meteorite materials and they formed 4.567 Gya, and so did, presumably, the Earth and Moon, since the ages of moon rocks and their  isotope ratios are very close to terrestrial values. See http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/312/5778/1369, wherein 30 to 50 My is the naturally occurring formation of the Earth-Moon result from the isotopic evidence.]

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Giant_impact_theory

Since the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity, some of the following ideas were Scientific "Heresy."

For awhile, few scientists would even be associated with the works of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, and even now, most of their seminal work goes unrecognized.

Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe found organic materials in space spectroscopically, and laid the groundwork for the detection of biological precursors in the dusts and gases of space. It did not start out that way, and this interview with Hoyle is a quick introduction to a whole complex of issues and human presumptions.

http://www.panspermia.org/hoylintv.htm

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5858/1876

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5869/1484b

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-09-16-tardigrades-panspermia_N.htm

Excerpt:"Interstellar panspermia remains a highly unlikely proposition in the minds of most scientists."
--from Robert Roy Britt, SPACE.com

That "attitude" seems to be changing as more and more organic molecules are found in space, formed from the mix of chemistry around supernova and normal red giant stars. In the introduction to Panspermia segment, Fred Hoyle makes reference to the "Cambrian Explosion" suggesting that an infall of molecular components from space, mixed with the extant (and pretty boring) life chemistry of Earth at that time and  "turned it all on."

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(08)00805-1

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html

This USGS publication [linked above] provides 4.54Gya for Earth by using Diablo Canyon (Meteor Crater, Arizona) comes from leads (Pb) ratios in troilite from the iron and other pieces of the meteorite of Meteor Crater. You can still find occasional fragments some distance from the impact and compute your own age for the meteorite. Excerpt from USGS: "The results show that the meteorites, and therefore the Solar System, formed between 4.53 and 4.58 billion years ago."

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2008/58/
See above for a "time spiral..."
Or download a copy you can print here:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2008/58/Spiral_Page3Meg.pdf
If you look at this spiral, you see we know very little about Earth's vast past time.

How about ducks? If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, squawks like a duck, is it?

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=421

How Many Big Hits?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Heavy_Bombardment

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/L/late_heavy_bombardment.html

Worthwhile reading and speculations like they need to be in Science

http://www.astrobio.net/news/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3138

=======================

Yes.  Without admitting the foundation of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, we have bitten into it . . .

The Seven LIFE Goals of NASA

This NASA site is "curated by" Lockheed Martin.

The Goal-Driven Life? There are entities consuming of each participant. Entities of mind . . .

Goal 1: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g1.html

Goal 1 Excerpt:"Of course it is not possible to examine the ~10^10 Earth-like planets that simple statistical models predict to exist in our galaxy, much less the ~10^21 such planets expected to be in the universe.

Goal 2: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g2.html

Goal 2 Excerpt:"Determine any chemical precursors of life and any ancient habitable climates in the Solar System, and characterize any extinct life, potential habitats, and any extant life on Mars and in the outer Solar System."

Goal 3: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g3.html

Goal 3 Excerpt:"To understand how life can begin on a habitable planet such as the Earth, it is essential to know what organic compounds were likely to have been available, and how they interacted with the planetary environment."

Goal 4: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g4.html

Goal 4 Excerpt:"How did life respond to major planetary disturbances, such as bolide impacts, sudden atmospheric changes, and global glaciations, and were some disturbances caused by life?"

Goal 5: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g5.html

Goal 5 Excerpt:"Life survives and sometimes thrives under what seem to be harsh conditions on Earth. For example, some microbes thrive at temperatures of 113°C." [note:This is 235.4 F.]

Goal 6: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g6.html

Goal 6 Excerpt:" Humans are increasingly perturbing Earth's biogeochemical cycles. In addition to impacting the carbon cycle, humans have doubled the natural global sulfur emissions to the atmosphere, doubled the global rate of nitrogen fixation, enhanced levels of phosphorus loading to the ocean, altered the silica cycle, and perhaps, most critically, altered the hydrological cycle."

Goal 7: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g7.html

Goal 7 Excerpt:"A biosignature is an object, substance and/or pattern whose origin specifically requires a biological agent."
-----------------
[note for goal 5 above: Wikipedia, article Panspermia, Extremophile:Some percentage of the Bacteria survived pulsed 250 C in vacuum. Some do fine at ~11 km deep in the ocean.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

==================

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/NASAorigins.cfm

http://exep.jpl.nasa.gov/

Artist concept of Kepler in space. Image credit: NASA/JPL
link below.
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

===========

Impact effects calculator. You choose the parameters for your impact!

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

The idea that life is tough stuff holds on in the new analysis of the Hadean -- showing that the Late Heavy Bombardment did not necessarily sterilize the planet, or even come close.

If you favor home-planet grown life -- there is a longer period for development through the LHB. If you subscribe to panspermia, the extra time gives life a longer run -- and if there is infall of precursors or supplemental components with some code -- you might get an explosion. If we, as a species, survive the greed causing the warming we face, we may know the answer to where life comes from in a few thousand years.

http://www.panspermia.org/chandra.htm

Les Porter's Note: [I have communicated briefly with Chandra Wickramasinghe. (Concerning the reluctance of the "science" community to give credit to Fred Hoyle and to him, even when the relationships of the "new science" to their seminal works are obvious.)

In the sciences, it is a shame, and those who have ignored the power and simple strength of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe's earlier foundational work, or to even give a nod in their direction, must be considered minor participants in the realm of the investigation and the furthering of an overall understanding of the universe; its constructional rules ["God's" Physical Laws] and the origin and nature of life.

From reading Wickramasinghe's work, I find a most impressive intellect and a most compassionate man, sharing the same outstanding absolute human qualities I found in Carl Sagan, but also more gently steeped in a humility that all people should strive to encompass and contain in their perspectives.]