Re: Synthetisch leven.
Geplaatst: 22 jul 2010 00:28
Hier een citaat uit een recente publikatie (juli ♦2006) van het International Space Science Institute (ISSI, Bern; http://www.issibern.ch/), waaruit blijkt dat de wetenschap steeds meer gaat beseffen dat de aarde lang niet zo geisoleerd is als men vtroeger wel dacht. Ik geef het hier niet als "bewijs" voor een hypothese, maar gewoon omdat het weinig gekende maar interessante nieuwe inzichten bevat.
http://www.issibern.ch/PDF-Files/Spatium_16.pdf schreef:The possibility that the emergence of life on Earth was based on organic molecules delivered to the Earth from space has become a subject of increasing interest. The analysis of carbonaceous meteorites has demonstrated that organic molecules, including amino acids, are formed in extraterrestrial environments. Astronomical observations have also shown that some of these molecules were formed already before the sun even started to form, and were incorporated into planets and smaller solar system objects such as comets and asteroids. Due to the extremely high temperatures on the planets during their formation, no organic molecules survived this epoch.
The organic compounds necessary for the origin of life were formed either later in the atmosphere (e. g. through Miller-Urey-type reactions), or were delivered to the early Earth by larg♦e asteroid and comet impacts (as discussed above) or by their fragments, the meteorites and interplanetary dust particles. The study of meteorites, particularly the carbonaceous chondrites that contain organic matter up to 5% by weight, has allowed close examination of extraterrestrial organic material. One of the most famous sources of extraterrestrial material is the Murchison meteorite named after the Australian town where it reached the Earth in 1969 (Fig. 8). Among other classes of organic compounds, more than eighty different amino acids have been identified in the Murchison meteorite at abundances of more than 1 partper-million (ppm), eight of which are identical to those used in life on Earth as building blocks of proteins and enzymes. Also, the presence of sugar-related molecules and nucleobases was confirmed.
Another source of information is the collection of micrometeorites that have been extracted from Antarctic ice. Many of these tiny objects in the 50–100 μm size are unmelted chondritic micrometeorites, indicating that they had crossed the terrestrial atmosphere without suffering drastic thermal shock. In February 2006, the NASA Stardust spacecraft has returned, for the first time, samples from beyond the Earth-Moon system in the form of cometary dust particles, which will give scientists a new window on the composition of comets.
It is thought that the various extraterrestrial sources may have delivered about 10^20g of carbon to the Earth during the first 600 million years (the Hadean period). This delivery represents more carbon than the amount engaged in the current biomass, which is estimated at 10^18 g. Whether or not these extraterrestrial compounds were the major source of organic molecules on the early Earth cannot be established even qualitatively since there are currently
no estimates of the contributions from the other, indigenous
sources. If meteorites can transport organic matter to the Earth, the next logical question relates to whether
living systems could have been delivered to the Earth. Of course, such specimens would experience the severe environmental conditions of space. Still, understanding survival in extreme conditions is essential for evaluating the potential for the interplanetary transfer of viable micro-organisms, and thus the potential that any life elsewhere in the solar system might share a common origin with life on Earth (or vice versa). Conditions in space and on other worlds are much more extreme than those encountered by any of the habitable extreme environments on Earth. Therefore, studies of survivorship beyond the Earth belong to the important tests of the resilience of Earth-originated life towards extreme conditions and its potential for dissemination in space.
Another option for life to leave its home planet is that of a civilized
society using advanced technology to travel into space. This is what we call manned spaceflight (Fig. 9).
The fact that all the niches onEarth are occupied by some forms of life suggests that it might be the
ultimate destiny of life to leave its cradle and to proliferate into space.