III. Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

G. An Astrochemistry to Astrobiological Spontaneity

Sanchez-Lavega, Agustin. ‘Planetodiveristy:’ the Variety of Planets and Planetary Systems in the Universe. Contemporary Physics. 47/3, 2006. The author, at the Universidad del Pais Vasco, Bilbao, Spain, coined the title akin to ‘biodiversity’ as a way to illustrate the wide array, filling every niche, of orbital or free-floating objects and of their solar hosts from one to several stars. A good survey article as earthkind begins to populate the galaxy and cosmos with neighbors to a degree unthinkable a decade ago.

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia. www.exoplanet.eu. A researcher at CNRS - Paris Observatory posts this comprehensive website all about earth’s new abilities to detect a grand array of planetary objects in the galaxy and cosmos. Across such a spectrum, a profusion of worlds where life and mind naturally evolve and flourish as so many seeds or eggs indeed implies a creative organic universe.

Seager, Sara. Alien Earths from A to Z. Sky & Telescope. January, 2008. The active search for extrasolar planets by novel instruments which can detect and characterize by their transit across the face of the star they orbit, which this MIT professor of planetary science participates in, has now recorded over 250 and counting (late 2010 some 500). They come in all sizes and kinds such as all iron, silicate-rich, carbon-rich, pure water, carbon monoxide, or totally hydrogen. See Seager's update "The Hunt for Super Earths" in the October 2010 Sky & Telescope. To so reflect, out of an amniotic universe appears our conducive, ovular world, whereupon matter vivifies into a collectivity of intelligent creatures able to scan from whence they came, ask why for, and maybe bear forth a cosmic child.

Planet formation appears to be a random, chaotic very diverse process with all sorts of outcomes depending on all sorts of initial flukes. The overall process seems to be a standard byproduct of star formation – and there are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. With the planetary dice being thrown so many times, countless types of worlds imagined and unimagined must be out there. (25)

Seager, Sara, et al. Toward a List of Molecules as Potential Biosignature Gases for the Search for Life on Exoplanets and Applications to Terrestrial Biochemistry. Astrobiology. 16/6, 2016. As a sign of the rapid progress being made by an instant global community, MIT scientists now move on from detecting exoworld atmospheres (the very idea that we Earthlings can do this all is incredible and auspicious) to assessments by virtue of organic traces whether it harbors organic life. As a guideline, a long inventory of our own Gaian biochemical components is listed. For another aspect, see Chemical Complementarity between the Gas Phase of the Interstellar Medium and the Rocky Material of Our Planetary System by Haiyang Wang and Charles Lineweaver at arXiv:1605.05503.

Thousands of exoplanets are known to orbit nearby stars. Plans for the next generation of space-based and ground-based telescopes are fueling the anticipation that a precious few habitable planets can be identified in the coming decade. Even more highly anticipated is the chance to find signs of life on these habitable planets by way of biosignature gases. But which gases should we search for? Although a few biosignature gases are prominent in Earth's atmospheric spectrum (O2, CH4, N2O), others have been considered as being produced at or able to accumulate to higher levels on exo-Earths (e.g., dimethyl sulfide and CH3Cl). Life on Earth produces thousands of different gases (although most in very small quantities). Some might be produced and/or accumulate in an exo-Earth atmosphere to high levels, depending on the exo-Earth ecology and surface and atmospheric chemistry.

To maximize our chances of recognizing biosignature gases, we promote the concept that all stable and potentially volatile molecules should initially be considered as viable biosignature gases. We present a new approach to the subject of biosignature gases by systematically constructing lists of volatile molecules in different categories. An exhaustive list up to six non-H atoms is presented, totaling about 14,000 molecules. About 2500 of these are CNOPSH compounds. An approach for extending the list to larger molecules is described. We further show that about one-fourth of CNOPSH molecules (again, up to N = 6 non-H atoms) are known to be produced by life on Earth. The list can be used to study classes of chemicals that might be potential biosignature gases, considering their accumulation and possible false positives on exoplanets with atmospheres and surface environments different from Earth's. The list can also be used for terrestrial biochemistry applications, some examples of which are provided. We provide an online community usage database to serve as a registry for volatile molecules including biogenic compounds. (Abstract)

Sephton, Mark. Organic Matter in Ancient Meteorites. Astronomy & Geophysics. 45/2, 2004. These nutrient fragments serve as cosmic time capsules which reveal early chemical steps toward life. They contain biological molecules of extraterrestrial origin that help fill in the course of complexifying animate matter.

Smith, Ian. Reactions at Very Low Temperatures. Angewandte Chimie. 45/18, 2006. A survey of the latest research in astrochemistry – the search for complex molecules in the interstellar reaches – which has now found over 135 biochemical precursors.

Smith, Ian, et al, eds. Astrochemistry and Astrobiology. Berlin: Springer, 2013. With coeditors Charles Cockell and Sydney Leach, an initial volume in a “Physical Chemistry in Action” series. A stellar cast of active scientists proceed to root and connect living beings ever more deeply in and continuous with an increasingly conducive, animate matter. Chapters run from “The Molecular Universe” by Maryvonne Gerin, “Planetary Atmospheres and Chemical Markers for Extraterrestrial Life,” Lisa Kaltenegger, onto “Life, Metabolism and Energy,” Robert Pascal and “The Physical Underpinnings of Replication” by Rebecca Turk-MacLeod, Ulrich Gerland, and Irene Chen. For effect, we join this volume with a concurrent December 2012 issue of Accounts of Chemical Research on “Origins of Chemical Evolution.” In our midst, so far unbeknownst, an innately fertile genesis universe is becoming revealed as a credible discovery, indeed a cosmic Copernican revolution.

The origin of life was a special point in our history when the principles of physics and chemistry first blossomed into the complex interactions that characterize living organisms. Biological phenomena, like replication, can be thought of as emerging from deeper microscopic structural and dynamic properties, in the same way that the physical phenomenon of friction emerges from microscopic interactions among materials. Although living organisms today are often so sophisticated that it can be difficult to see the roots of physical chemistry in their everyday operation, the very first organisms and transitional form would have been quite close to those roots. (Turk-MacLeod, 271)

Snyder, Lewis. Interferometric Observations of Large Biologically Interesting Interstellar and Cometary Molecules. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. 103/12243, 2006. An example of our collaborative ability to explore and find an organic universe with a natural propensity to form precursors of complex, evolving life. The paper by William Klemperer, Interstellar Chemistry, in the same issue is also notable.

Interferometric observations of high-mass regions in interstellar molecular clouds have revealed hot molecular cores that have substantial column densities of large, partly hydrogen-saturated molecules. Many of these molecules are of interest to biology and thus are labeled “biomolecules.” Because the clouds containing these molecules provide the material for star formation, they may provide insight into presolar nebular chemistry, and the biomolecules may provide information about the potential for the associated interstellar chemistry for seeding newly formed planets with prebiotic organic chemistry. (12243)

Sole, Ricard and Andreea Munteanu. The Large-Scale Organization of Chemical Reaction Networks in Astrophysics. Europhysics Letters. 68/2, 2004. As a self-regulated biosphere, earth’s far-from-equilibrium atmosphere exhibits a scale-free, modular, hierarchical topology similar to cellular metabolic networks. For chemicals found in the interstellar medium, a simpler reaction graph structure holds. These two basic types of networks can then be associated with the presence or absence of extrasolar planetary life.

Taniguchi, Kotomi, et al. Carbon-Chain Chemistry in the Interstellar Medium.. arXiv:2303.15769. Some fifty years after their first notice, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden review the ever-growing organic presence of such life-bearing biochemicals across the galactic realms. A half century on, it has become increasingly evident and persuasive that a fertile ecosmic conducive milieu indeed has a phenomenal existence.

The presence of carbon-chain molecules in the interstellar and galactic medium has been known since the 1970s and over 100 such species have been identified to date. They provide vital information on physical conditions, gas dynamics, and evolutionary stages of star-forming regions. More complex species of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and fullerenes have been detected in circumstellar envelopes around carbon-rich Asymptotic Giant Branch stars and planetary nebulae. This article updates carbon-chain molecules via observational studies, chemical simulations, quantum calculations, and laboratory experiments. (Excerpt)

Tostevin, Rosalie and Imad Ahmed. Micronutrient availability in Precambrian oceans controlled by greenalite format. Nature Geoscience. 6/1188, 2024. By the mid 2020s, global scientific techniques have become so advanced that University of Cape Town and Oxford University geochemists can finely quantify the certain elements involved in the formation of necessary biomineral protein-like components. Into this extreme summer, one might wonder at what sufficient point could it dawn, might it be possible to realize, that we peoples may just now be perceiving an innately fertile, procreative, independent reality which then requires our proactive Earthuman sustainability.

Metabolisms that evolved in the Archaean era (4.0–2.5 bya) preferentially selected iron, manganese and molybdenum to form metalloproteins, whereas the majority of zinc-, copper- and vanadium-binding proteins emerged later. Recent sedimentological work has uncovered iron silicate minerals. Here we quantify the diagenesis of an Fe(II) silicate mineral, a precursor to crystalline greenalite in seawater and hot hydrothermal fluids. Our results provide a mechanistic explanation for metal availability in Archaean oceans that is consistent with temporal patterns of metal utilization predicted from protein structures and comparative genomics. (Excerpts)

Ulmschneider, Peter. Intelligent Life in the Universe. Berlin: Springer, 2003. A recent review set within a Darwinian frame but whose perspective allows cosmic and earthly evolution to be distinguished by ‘a long-range direction’ of the growth of information.

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