Panspermia — a hypothesis about how life appeared
No, panspermia is not a panicky fear of sperm or a contagious sexually transmitted disease. In fact, this is an interesting theory about how life appeared on Earth, and one day, if this theory is fully proven, it will change the entire understanding of the development of the Universe and evolution. And she doesn’t even have a conspiracy; scientists fully support her. Interesting? Then read the following.
Contents of the article:
What is panspermia?
To begin with: why Panspermia?
The Greek root for “sperm” is seed. Pan is everything. Therefore, it can be translated as “all types” or “universal types”.
Darwin”s theory of evolution is familiar to almost everyone. In the same way, life exists only in water at the very beginning, living organisms feed on each other, grow, gradually evolve, and at some point they go into the ground and begin to evolve there.
Thus, the first living creatures on earth were amphibians, and the answer to the question “chickens or eggs came first” was eggs. These amphibians then evolved into dinosaurs.
By the way, an interesting fact: the only creature that has not changed since the time of the dinosaurs is the crocodile. Only dinosaurs were much more common. Imagine a giant crocodile. Horrible, isn”t it?
Yes. But where did life in water come from? Darwin believed that from cells: cells united, evolved, progressed, had a primitive mind, etc. So where did the cells come from?
Panspermia answers this question. And to clarify this, let”s continue with an example.
Here on earth, on the very land where you live, stones were thrown. The universe shook. I”m not kidding! The encountered stone falls to the ground with great speed and has a very large mass, which causes a concussion in which the earth trembles. And from this trembling in the sky, and in the Universe, other synonyms for small-sized particles of life on Earth are picked up.
Dust, particles of the earth and stone itself, particles of blades of grass, particles of animal fur or bird feathers, or their secretions and liquids. Of course, these particles cannot be seen with the naked eye — they are so small. In many cases it is simply the genome of something generally living. But this tiny genome. It turned out that this is the universe. Yes, that”s true.
And there, sooner or later, it reaches some cosmic body, for example, a piece of rock encountered, floating in space. Then another body, a second, a third, a fourth, like the wings of a forest hawk, or like a plant seed pollinated by a bee. The parts move in such a way that the surrounding conditions lead to the formation of a body more or less suitable for life. Then the development of the genome begins. Then, in this spatial body, life begins.
According to scientists, the same thing happened on Earth. One day, somewhere in some cosmic body where life existed, a meteor fell, and this particle of life ended up in space. From there, through an endless chain of cosmic coincidences, not in two years, but over thousands of years, they fell to Earth and were born here. And then came evolution. Read also:
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Unfortunately, panspermia is only a hypothesis, as it is virtually impossible to prove experimentally and can only be speculated upon. However, this theory is largely supported by the scientific community studying space and the development of life on Earth. For example, Stephen Hawking has spoken in favor of it, and you can read about it in his “The Theory of Everything” and other books.
What types of panspermia are there?
What is panspermia?
- Ballistic — this theory suggests that biological material travels within a single solar system.
- Instructions — this theory suggests that this is not a series of cosmic coincidences. On the contrary, biological material sends certain extraterrestrial civilizations to different planets.
- The Origin of Life. Panspermia
The emergence of life. panspermia
How did they even come up with this?
This theory wasn”t popular either in Ancient Greece (back then, Plato and Socrates were included along with everyone else), or in the following ten centuries, when the Middle Ages were taking place on Earth. And even during the Renaissance, it wasn”t popular.
Scientists returned to it only in the 18th century, and progress, when humanity could attempt to form a scientific picture of the world and its appearance, somewhat separated from divine providence, ever advanced. Then, like mushrooms after rain, various theories about the creation of all life sprang up, and one of these “mushrooms” was Benoit de Malle, who developed Anaxagoras”s theory into a more familiar form. He fell to the ground.
Moreover, the theory was developed in the 19th century, and they believed that this could happen not only on Earth but on any celestial body. The theory of extraterrestrial civilizations was proposed in the 1970s—incidentally, that was the heyday of alien films. Coincidence? Yes, coincidence.
Ten years later, the theory found its first physical confirmation. A substance that had been discovered on Earth was found. Perhaps this is one of the fragments of the very molecule that once, at the beginning of time, brought life to Earth? However, opponents of the theory believe that such matter forms spontaneously and has nothing to do with the Earth. Another argument against those who oppose the Panspermia Express theory: how can even the tiniest living cell survive in a universe where the very space for life is simply inadequate and practically filled with cosmic radiation? The hypothetical proponent has no answer.
Active research is being conducted in this area, but the theory cannot yet be proven with complete and absolute certainty. Pooh has also not been criticized. Perhaps in the future, science will advance so far that humanity will learn with certainty about its origins. Who knows what mysteries await us endlessly?
Panspermia and the Origin of Life (as astrophysicist Alexander Panov and others explain)
Panspermia, hypothesis, appeared, life
Panspermia, hypothesis, appeared, life
