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Cosmic Pathways to Life: From Interstellar Molecules to the First Traces of Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2020

Manuel Güdel ,
Bruce G. Elmegreen  and
L. Viktor Tóth Open the ORCID record for L. Viktor Tóth [Opens in a new window]
Manuel Güdel
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria email: [email protected]
Bruce G. Elmegreen
Affiliation:
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, 1101 Kitchawan Road, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598USA email: [email protected]@us.ibm.com
L. Viktor Tóth
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary; Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1121 Budapest, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 15-17, Hungary email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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The present-day Earth with its innumerable life forms is a product of cosmic evolution starting with the formation of our galaxy and the dense gas clouds within it, and proceeding through the contraction of one of those clouds about 4.6 Gyr ago, first into filaments and then one or more protostellar disks, planets, and central stars, one of which was our Sun. Radioactive debris from a massive nearby star was included. The planets themselves formed through coagulation, accretion, and fragmentation of solid bodies. Habitability depends on a delicate balance between disk accretion by gravity and dispersal by the central star, which determine the size of the planet and its gaseous envelope, combined with a long period of stellar radiation, which has to disperse this envelope but leave a hospitable secondary atmosphere. The final step toward life involves even more complexity as self-replicating bio-molecules form with ever increasing stability.

Keywords

astrobiologyastrochemistrymagnetic fieldsSun: activitystars: activityEarthplanets and satellites: formationsolar system: formationstars: formation
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 14 , Symposium S345: Origins: From the Protosun to the First Steps of Life , August 2018 , pp. 1 - 14
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© International Astronomical Union 2020

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