/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14867832
Panspermia is kicking the can out into space. It's just cope.

The amount of redditors who thought a drop of liquid water floated off this asteroid and got collected by the spacecraft was staggering.
In relation to OPs question though, why do you dismiss that life began on Earth?

>>14867832
>Muh panspermia
>Muh hurr durr life originated on a dead rock in a frozen water while being bombarded by radiation
Abiogenesis happened on earth.End of the story.

>>14867844
Depending on how you interpret the collision formation theory of the Earth-Moon system, there's a very slight chance for key prerequisites to abiogenesis to have happened on the moon. Similarly, cosmic radiation on frozen water followed by atmospheric reentry is very different from submerged geothermal vents, and in combination with bringing key elements to the surface the asteroid may have been the more foundational.

"Abiogenisis" is not JUST "when did it become life", it also has to answer "where did the building blocks come from?" And that is a really fucking whack question we don't really have models for. If we did, we'd be synthesizing microorganisms with novel biochemistries.

>>14868136
Or, alternatively, abiogenesis could have happened anywhere with conditions similar to early earth. Since there's a decent chance of it anywhere that has volcanic glass and water and that isn't insanely hot or cold.
Maybe it could have happened on earth too, but our life actually originated on Mars, and some of it got blasted off of Mars by an impact and was sprinkled here.

https://www.science.org/content/article/did-volcanic-glasses-help-spark-early-life
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2022.0027

>>14867832
Whether life began on earth or on space matters because the environment is different. The mix of initial molecules, local temperature, pressure, Ph and so forth are different depending on the location of origin.
"Life did not begin on earth" is not a sufficient answer though. It's like the people who propose simulation theory as the solution to all of life's existential questions. If we're in a simulation, then where did the universe the simulator is running in come from?

>>14868136
I had the same idea as you anon and spent some time researching it. Most calculations place the origin of life around 500-1000 million years after the collision.

I could never understand this weird asteroid thing. My theory is christian upbringing left a mark on them and this is their subconscious way of making life unearthly and coming from the heavens.

>>14869550
It's because all abiogenesis experiments show that the likelihood of life emerging from random chance on Earth is nonexistent. Rather than admit that their theory was wrong, they kick the can down the road by saying it must have come from some more ideal location in space.

>>14869836
>some more ideal location in space
Lol, when you put it that way it sounds even more ridiculous