Life could have emerged in the big bang's glow

• Autores: Jacob Aron
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2947, 2013, pág. 14
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Astronomers hunting for signs of alien life today look for planets within the habitable zone of stars--the region around a star that is warm enough for liquid water to exist on a planets surface. Worlds beyond this zone, in the deep freeze of space, should be inhospitable for life. But space wasn't always so frigid, points out Abraham Loeb of Harvard University. The very early universe was filled with superhot gas, or plasma, that gradually cooled and condensed to form stars and galaxies. Loeb calculates that about 15 million years after the big bang, the whole universe would have been warm enough to be one large habitable zone. This life-friendly epoch would have lasted a few million years, enough time for microbes to emerge but not multicellular life, he suggests.