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

G. An Astrochemistry to Astrobiological Spontaneity

Cobb, Alyssa and Ralph Pudritz. Nature’s Starships: Observed Abundances and Relative Frequencies of Amino Acids in Meteorites. Astrophysical Journal. 783/2, 2014. McMaster University, Origins Institute researchers quantify how interstellar meteor showers with a rich presence of biochemicals can serve the spread and seeding of precursor life across the interstellar spacescape. See also by the authors with Ben Pearce in this journal Simulating the Synthesis of Amino Acids in Meteorite Parent Bodies (809/1, 2015).

Cohen, Jack and Ian Stewart. What Does a Martian Look Like?: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2002. An imaginative survey of potential life forms in the cosmos. This is made plausible because nonlinear science has lately surpassed the second law of thermodynamics with a ‘fourth law’ to describe how a life-bearing universe becomes increasingly complex and sentient, rather than entropically wearing out. A significant attribute of the human presence is seen as ‘extelligence,’ a planetary culture that is independent of individual minds.

Where the entropy physicists saw the Universe following the slippery slope downwards to oblivion, today’s complexity thinkers see the universe as complicating itself and inventing new rules as it goes along. (89)

Colzi, L., et al. Astrochemistry on Galactic Scales. arXiv:2409.02537.. This chapter for the 2024 National Congress of (proto-) Planetary Astrochemistry Proceedings by Centro de Astrobiologıa (CSIC-INTA), Spain, INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Italy, European Southern Observatory, Germany, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden and MPI Extraterrestrische Physik astrophysicists extols the current cornucopia of over 300 molecules that have now been detected across these celestial reaches. Cosmic rays are now also seen to play a vital part. Thus, it seems our starry heavens are suffused by an inherent propensity to synthesize compositions that will serve subsequent living systems on their evolutionary course. See also another chapter Planet Formation and Disk Chemistry: Dust and Gas Evolution during Planet Formation herein at arXiv:2407.03520.

Many observations in Milky Way environs, as well as theoretical and experimental works, are revealing astrochemical processes in the interstellar medium (ISM). In this chapter we describe some main projects to study the chemical complexity and isotopic ratios across the Galaxy. High-sensitivity spectral surveys covering broad bandwidths towards molecular clouds and star-forming regions are very rich astrochemical, prebiotic reservoirs, which include molecules of prebiotic interest. At the same time, isotopic ratios can inform Galactic chemical evolution. (Excerpt)

Corradi, R., et al. The Planetary Nebula IPHASXJ211420.0+434136 (Ou5): Insights into Common-Envelope Dynamical and Chemical Evolution. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 441/4, 2014. A typical paper today from observatories in Spain, Chile, Estonia, and South Africa whence it is possible for such global collaborations to study and characterize neighbor orbital worlds across the galaxies. And how fantastic is this that phenomenal human beings can gain knowledge of such infinities, what great discovery might we altogether anticipate and achieve?

While analysing the images of the IPHAS (INT/WFC Photometric Hα Survey of the northern Galactic plane) survey, we noticed that the central star of the candidate planetary nebula IPHASXJ211420.0+434136 (also named Ou5) was clearly variable. This is generally considered as an indication of binarity. To confirm it, we performed a photometric monitoring of the central star, and obtained images and spectra of the nebula. The nebular spectrum confirms that IPHASXJ211420.0+434136 is a planetary nebula of moderately high excitation. It has a remarkable morphology with two nested pairs of bipolar lobes and other unusual features. The light curve of the central star reveals that it is an eclipsing binary system with an orbital period of 8.74 h. IPHASXJ211420.0+434136 also adds evidence to the hypothesis that a significant fraction of planetary nebulae with close binary central stars have a peculiar nebular chemistry and a relatively low nebular mass. This may point to low-mass, low-metallicity progenitors, with additional effects related to the binary evolution. (Abstract)

Cosmovici, C., et al, eds. Astronomical and Biochemical Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe. Bologna: Editrice Compositori, 1997. Reports from an International Astronomical Union IAU Colloquium. The tacit conviction at these conferences is a cosmos naturally spawning life and advanced intelligence.

Cote, Benoit, et al. JINA-NuGrid Galactic Chemical Evolution Pipeline. arXiv:1609.09528. Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, and Nucleosynthesis Grid project Earthlings retrospectively quantify how the temporal cosmos formed its material compositions, which evidently have our human acumen is written into them.

Galactic chemical evolution is a topic that involves nuclear physics, stellar evolution, galaxy evolution, observation, and cosmology. Continuous communication and feedback between these fields is a key component in improving our understanding of how galaxies form and how elements are created and recycled in galaxies and intergalactic space. In this proceedings, we present the current state of the JINA-NuGrid chemical evolution pipeline. It is designed to probe the impact of nuclear astrophysics uncertainties on galactic chemical evolution, to improve our knowledges regarding the origin of the elements in a cosmological context, and to create the required interdisciplinary connections. (Abstract)

Cottin, Herve, et al. Astrobiology and the Possibility of Life on Earth and Elsewhere. Space Science Review. Online September, 2015. A summary of this title 2011 – 2014 European Space Agency project whose team includes Charles Cockell, Julia Kotler, Frances Westall and Robert Pascal. Check this journal for future articles in more detail.

Cridland, Alex, et al. Connecting Planet Formation and Astrochemistry: A Main Sequence for C/O in Hot-Exoplanetary Atmospheres. arXiv:1910.13071. Leiden Observatory and McMaster University scientists including Ewine van Dishoeck and Ralph Pudritz post an extensive quantification of global, oxygen to carbon gaseous mixtures and interactions as they may evolve due to migrating large and small solar system objects.

Cunningham, Maria, et al, eds. Astrochemistry VII: Through the Cosmos from Galaxies to Planets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. These Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposia S332 open with an Astrochemistry Overview by Ewine van Dishoeck. The volume goes on to convey how broad and deep this scientific endeavor has become as it proceeds to quantify and discover an inherently animate conducive ecosmos.

Since the discovery of ammonia in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way in 1968, we have identified around 160 complex organic molecules, which help us understand how stars and planets form. IAU S332 describes how such observations, combined with numerical modelling and laboratory astrochemistry, are used to study how the Universe has evolved.

Cutts, Elise. The Cosmos Teems with Complex Organic Molecules. Quanta. November 13, 2024. The Austrian based science expositor provides a latest survey of a decidedly “Organic Cosmos” (graphic title) which has by now been found to be filled with all manner of fertile ingredients for living systems to come together, react and arise on their way to our present Earthuman observance and potential continuance.

What the Rosetta satellite did for comets, Japan’s Hayabusa2 and NASA’s Osiris-Rex are doing for asteroids. In 2020 and 2023, respectively, the two missions scooped up samples of Bennu and Ryugu and returned them to Earth. Scientists have since found find that both asteroids sport plenty of organic molecules. Ryugu alone including 15 different amino acids. “It’s just everything possible from which life could emerge,” said Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin), an organic geoscientist at the Technical University of Munich.

“I would like to know where we come from as a planetary species,” said Karin Öberg, an astrochemist at Harvard University.
By sending probes to sample primordial comets and asteroids, peering into planet-forming disks with telescopes, and re-creating spacelike conditions in labs and computer models, scientists are uncovering the origins of complex organic molecules. Their findings indicate that planets like ours likely inherit much of their organic material from a time before the sun.

Dagdigian, Paul. Quantum Statistical Study of the C+ + OH → CO + H+/CO+ + H Reaction. Journal of Chemical Physics. 151/054306, 2019. A Johns Hopkins University prolific senior chemist (view website) studies reaction rate and product branching ratio at interstellar temperatures. We cite as an integral meld of quantum and astrochemical phenomena at frontiers of our global verification of an organic, fertile, procreative ecosmic milieu. The work also conveys a 21st century biocosmic revolution in our midst which unifies all these disparate fields going forward.