Can organisms generate their own self-sustaining ecosystems in space without a planet. Researchers say it's at least plausible.
Newly discovered Earth-size planet TOI 700 e orbits within the habitable zone of its star in this illustration. New research questions whether planets are necessary for life. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Robert Hurt
In new research published in the journal Astrobiology, researchers point out that ecosystems could generate and sustain the conditions necessary for their own survival without requiring a planet. The paper is titled “.” The authors are Robin Wordsworth, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard, and Charles Cockell, Professor of Astrobiology in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh.
“To understand the constraints on life beyond Earth, we can start by reviewing why our home planet is a good habitat for life in the first place,” write the authors. Low-mass objects in the outer Solar System have ample surface area, but the Sun’s energy is weak. They’re unlikely to be able to hold onto their atmospheres, so the correct pressure and temperature for liquid water are out of reach. They’re also unprotected from UV radiation and cosmic rays.
“Internal pressure differences of order 10 kPa are easily maintained by biological materials and in fact common in macroscopic organisms on Earth,” the authors write. “The blood pressure increase from the head to the feet of a 1.5-m tall human is around 15 kPa.” Seaweed can also sustain internal float nodule pressures of 15-25 kPa by releasing CO2 from photosynthesis.
Saharan Silver Ants devouring a camel tick. Image Credit: By Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – Own work by uploader, http://bjornfree.com/galleries.html, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17131784 The authors calculated that these types of structures could maintain the right temperature and pressure to maintain liquid water.
This can be solved by the same barriers that maintain pressure and temperature. “Inhibition of volatile escape would be most easily achieved by the same part of the habitat wall responsible for maintaining the pressure differential necessary to stabilize liquid water,” write the authors.
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