Earthlings may be extreme latecomers to a universe full of life, with alien microbes possibly teeming on exoplanets beginning just 15 million years after the Big Bang, new research suggests

Traditionally, astrobiologists keen on solving the mystery of the origin of life in the universe look for planets in habitable zones around stars. Also known as Goldilocks zones, these regions are considered to be just the right distance away from stars for liquid water, a pre-requisite for life as we know it, to exist.

But even exoplanets that orbit far beyond the habitable zone may have been able to support life in the distant past, warmed by the relic radiation left over from the Big Bang that created the universe 13.8 billion years ago, says Harvard astrophysicist Abraham Loeb. 

Just after the Big Bang, the cosmos was a much hotter place. It was filled with sizzling plasma — superheated gas — that gradually cooled. The first light produced by this plasma is the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) that we observe today, which dates from about 389,000 years after the Big Bang.

Now the CMB is freezing cold — around minus 454 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 270 degrees Celsius; 3 Kelvin). It cooled down gradually with the expansion of the universe, and at some point during the cooling process, for a brief period of seven million years or so, the temperature was just right for life to form — between 31 and 211 degrees Fahrenheit (0 and 100 degrees Celsius; 273 and 373 Kelvin).

What is the Big Bang and birth of the earth?

The Big Bang and Hadean Eon

During a time span known as the Hadean eon, our Solar System formed within a large cloud of gas and dust. The Sun’s gravitational pull brought together spatial particles to create the Earth and other planets, but they would take a long time to reach their modern 

What happened after the Big Bang?

The Era Of Recombination

There were no stars, and there were no galaxies. After the Big Bang, the universe was like a hot soup of particles (i.e. protons, neutrons, and electrons). When the universe started cooling, the protons and neutrons began combining into ionized atoms of hydrogen and deuterium

Alien life may have evolved just after Big Bang

Scientists say that exoplanet may have been able to support life in distant past, warmed by relic radiation left over from Big Bang

Is there intelligent life out there in the Milky Way beyond our own Solar System? If so, how many alien civilizations are there presently within our own galaxy, and how far away is the closest one? It’s a question that’s mystified humanity for as long as we’ve looked up at the stars and wondered about perhaps the greatest of all the existential questions we could possibly ask, “are we alone?”

Although we’ve come very far in our understanding of stars, planets, and what’s out there — in our Milky Way and beyond — we still don’t know whether there’s any form of extraterrestrial life in the Universe, much less intelligent aliens. And yet, a new studyjust claimed that there are 36 alien civilizations in the Milky Way, and represent it as a lower limit on what’s out there

The Universe Has Probably Hosted Many Alien Civilizations: Study

The probability of a civilization developing on a potentially habitable alien planet would have to be less than one in 10 billion trillion — or one part in 10 to the 22nd power — for humanity to be the first technologically advanced species the cosmos has ever known, according to the study.

“To me, this implies that other intelligent, technology-producing species very likely have evolved before us,” said lead author Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester in New York.

Alien life in Universe: Scientists say finding it is ‘only a matter of time’

Many astronomers are no longer asking whether there is life elsewhere in the Universe. 

The question on their minds is instead: when will we find it? 

Many are optimistic of detecting life signs on a faraway world within our lifetimes – possibly in the next few years.

And one scientist, leading a mission to Jupiter, goes as far as saying it would be “surprising” if there was no life on one of the planet’s icy moons

We live in an infinite Universe, with infinite stars and planets. And it’s been obvious to many of us that we can’t be the only intelligent life out there,” says Prof Catherine Heymans, Scotland’s Astronomer Royal.

“We now have the technology and the capability to answer the question of whether we are alone in the cosmos.”

The ‘Goldilocks zone’ 

Telescopes can now analyse the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars, looking for chemicals that – on Earth at least – can be produced only by living organisms. 

The first flicker of such a discovery came earlier this month. The possible sign of a gas that, on Earth, is produced by simple marine organisms was detected in the atmosphere of a planet named K2-18b, which is 120 light years away.

The planet is in what astronomers call ”the Goldilocks zone’ – the right distance away from its star for the surface temperature to be neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for there to be liquid water, which is essential to support life

The team expects to know in a year’s time whether the tantalising hints are confirmed or have gone away. 

Prof Nikku Madhusudhan of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University, who led the study, told me that if the hints are confirmed “it would radically change the way we think about the search for life”. 

“If we find signs of life on the very first planet we study, it will raise the possibility that life is common in the Universe.”

He predicts that within five years there will be “a major transformation” in our understanding of life in the Universe

Please like subscribe comment your precious thoughts on universe discoveries

Full article source google

https://www.amazon.in/b?_encoding=UTF8&tag=555101-21&link