Life would spread in space thanks to tiny invisible particles (also transported by comets), says a study
Does life appear directly on planets or does it spread from space? According to new research, it could spread through cosmic dust. The Earth is approximately 4.53 billion years old, and some evidence shows that life existed on our planet. Some evidence suggests it was here even earlier, just 500 million years after the Earth formed. But life may not have originated here. This new study examines the idea that cosmic dust could be responsible for the spread of life throughout the galaxy. In other words, it arose elsewhere and came to the young Earth.
Where did life on Earth come from?
No matter how much we ponder and investigate the origins of life, we currently do not know how it began. We have an idea of the kind of environment that could generate it, sure, but it’s not enough. “Assuming that planetary dust particles can escape the gravitational pull of a planet, we consider the possibility that dust grains leave through radiation pressure,” writes Osmanov, author of the study.
Carried by comets and asteroids
The idea that life itself can travel through space thanks to comets and asteroids is an idea accepted by the scientific community. When these objects crash into planets, these tiny grains of dust would spread across those celestial bodies. For dust to carry life, it must necessarily come from a planet that already hosts it. Research shows that dust particles from Earth’s atmosphere can mix with cosmic dust grains. And a small percentage can even escape the gravity of the planet itself, spreading out into space.
How and how quickly it spreads
Life, however, would have to be very resilient to survive on a speck of dust as it travels through interstellar space. It should avoid dangers such as radiation and heat. If life itself couldn’t do it, perhaps complex molecules could. If we assume that this is possible, the next question is how quickly it could spread. “It has been proven that, over the course of 5 billion years, the grains of dust will reach 10 to the fifth star systems and, taking into account , it has been proven that the entire galaxy will be filled with planetary dust particles,” concludes the scientist.
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