Anyone else think a universal intelligence is behind seeding planets with these rocks?
Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
101–110 of 180 posts
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess it depends on how you define life, and whether we'd even recognize it when we see it, assuming we're looking in the right places. I'd also imagine that any type of chemistry that harvests energy from the environment is liable to find itself as a food source at the bottom of the food chain now that earth is teeming with life. I think that self-replication, and ability to harvest chemicals and energy from the e…
> I think that self-replication, and ability to harvest chemicals and energy from the environment to make more of what you're built of, is the point of complexification of chemistry that is best considered as the most primitive form of life Once there are forms that harvest and self-replicate, however, its expectable that there will be forms that delegate those features to others, like viruses. Cellular machinery tha…
If we find some parasite the host can't be too far off.
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#103Anyone else think a universal intelligence is behind seeding planets with these rocks?
Like a god? No.
Or like some ancient alien species that travelled the stars but found it was alone, like in the ST:TNG episode[0]? No too.
Even if these ancient aliens thought it would be fun to spread their sperm all over asteroids and fling them out into the universe, there wouldn't be enough time for those rocks to get anywhere.
The more logical conclusion is that abiogenesis happens everywhere in the universe under the right conditions.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chase_(Star_Trek:_The_Next...
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
pray tell, where do we learn this simple truth?
>pray tell, where do we learn this simple truth? Praying[0] is a good start! That, coupled with large amounts of suspension of disbelief[1] helps too. I suggest drinking (or whatever your preferred brain-fogger might be) heavily. That helps you ignore the details -- because the "devil is in the details" and we mustn't have that, right? [0] Also known as "begging an imaginary sky daddy for help" [1] https://en.wikiped…
I realize you're just replying in kind to the GP, who wasn't very nice himself. I also think it's not necessary to feed such trolls in a way that insults all the religious folks who do enjoy this site and don't try to push our faith on others.
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#105One longstanding theory is that life first began on Earth when asteroids carrying fundamental elements crashed into our planet long ago. I'm no expert but this sounds strange. Surely those fundamental elements would also form in vast quantities on their own on an entire planet with volcanoes and oceans? Wouldn't a couple asteroids be the literal drop in the ocean in comparison? The missing part is how do they form se…
I agree. If we knew the mechanism for how life started we'd probably be doing the experiments to prove it. There are theories and experiments that suggest some life-like processes can happen with inorganic compounds, but they require a lot of squinting and a bit of imagination to connect with our own origins. And there's a big difference between experiment and nature. On the one hand, we have people trying to make it happen, while on the other hand, it apparently already happened once, without anyone even needing to be around.
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
>pray tell, where do we learn this simple truth? Praying[0] is a good start! That, coupled with large amounts of suspension of disbelief[1] helps too. I suggest drinking (or whatever your preferred brain-fogger might be) heavily. That helps you ignore the details -- because the "devil is in the details" and we mustn't have that, right? [0] Also known as "begging an imaginary sky daddy for help" [1] https://en.wikiped…
I realize you're just replying in kind to the GP, who wasn't very nice himself. I also think it's not necessary to feed such trolls in a way that insults all the religious folks who do enjoy this site and don't try to push our faith on others.
I thought he was being tactfully humorous, yous daves. And you counted that as an insult?! jesus.
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#107So what?! This does not prove anything! There are stones all around us, but they don't assemble themselves into beautiful, majestic stone buildings! All ingredients of concrete are around us, but we don't see them turning into concrete and pouring themselves into freeways, bridges, and all kinds of much less complex than living organisms!
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#108One longstanding theory is that life first began on Earth when asteroids carrying fundamental elements crashed into our planet long ago. I'm no expert but this sounds strange. Surely those fundamental elements would also form in vast quantities on their own on an entire planet with volcanoes and oceans? Wouldn't a couple asteroids be the literal drop in the ocean in comparison? The missing part is how do they form se…
The major flaw in Panspermia is that it all had to start somewhere without Panspermia. If it did that there, why not here?
One theory is that the early plasma shortly after big bang had the right conditions to set the life building block chemistry.
Imagine the entire universe contains those buildings block.
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
The smaller rocks are composed of those materials in solid state (e.g., ice not water). They are less irradiated as they are further away from the Sun (think the asteroid belt and beyond). Atmospheric entry (if that's what you mean) is irrelevant. What matters here is the transport of materials from a place where they could have formed, to a place where they couldn't.
> Atmospheric entry (if that's what you mean) is irrelevant. I think the OP meant that Earths magnetic field and atmosphere shields any terrestrial matter far more than than a bare asteroid that has no such protections, so it seems implausible at first glance that these things would develop or survive in open space rather than here.
> it seems implausible at first glance that these things would develop or survive in open space rather than here.
I don't think "organics developed in the vacuum of space" is implied. Survived? Well we have samples now confirming, if I'm understanding the basis for the discussion (the article).
Re: Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
#110One longstanding theory is that life first began on Earth when asteroids carrying fundamental elements crashed into our planet long ago. I'm no expert but this sounds strange. Surely those fundamental elements would also form in vast quantities on their own on an entire planet with volcanoes and oceans? Wouldn't a couple asteroids be the literal drop in the ocean in comparison? The missing part is how do they form se…
Comets is where many astronomers have long thought the ocean came from. Comets are literal drops in our ocean. LOTS of comets. The atmosphere and the Earth at large would have been very different, and being bombarded by many giant space snowballs (along with asteroids) would have contributed materials. The missing part is, um, missing. We still do not know. However, these samples contained building blocks, not actual…
Meteorites