Ancient Life as Old as the Universe
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters bring it up in threads about asteroid samples and panspermia as an accessible take on early-universe habitability.
What it is
Kurzgesagt explores the idea that life might have arisen shortly after the Big Bang, when the whole universe was warm enough to be habitable. It discusses what that would mean for the origin and spread of life.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2023 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends djedr · 2023-10 · on “NASA asteroid sample contains life-critical water and carbon”
> offering more evidence for the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space. This hypothesis seems to be getting more and more traction. There is an excellent recent video on topic from Kurzgesagt [0]. Interesting that neither the video nor the article uses the name panspermia[1] to refer to the hypothesis. I wonder why that is. Wikipedia also states that "[the fringe theory] is also criticized because it cannot be tested experimentally". Can't it? If we ever find an organism based on DNA compatible with organisms on Earth, wouldn't that validate it? [0] [this video] [1] [LINK]
Cites ourmandave · 2023-10 · on “NASA finds water and organics in asteroid sample–possible clues to life's origin”
Kurzgesagt just posted a video that speculates that life was possible every where when the entire universe was at the temperature range of liquid water as it cooled after the big bang. [this video]
Cites svachalek · 2023-11 · on “Comets that 'bounce' from planet to planet could spread life across the universe”
Not before the Big Bang, but this is interesting -- what if life developed when the entire universe was in the habitable zone? [this video]
Cites adolph · 2024-01 · on “Antarctic fungi survive Martian conditions on the International Space Station”
One of the main ideas explained in this video is that the very early universe (i.e. the universe “right after the Big Bang” in cosmic timescales) might have been habitable for a short period of time. During this time window, the right temperature to support life wouldn’t have been restricted to the proximity of stars, but would have instead taken place absolutely everywhere in space due to the intrinsic temperature of the universe itself. [LINK] [this video]