N. Chandra Wickramasinghe

The origin of life from primordial planets

The origin of life and the origin of the Universe are among the most important problems of science and they might be inextricably linked. Hydro-gravitational-dynamics cosmology predicts hydrogen–helium gas planets in clumps as the dark matter of galaxies, with millions of planets per star. This unexpected prediction is supported by quasar microlensing of a galaxy and a flood of new data from space telescopes. Supernovae from stellar over-accretion of planets produce the chemicals (C, N, O, P, etc.) and abundant liquid-water domains required for first life and the means for wide scattering of life prototypes. Life originated following the plasma-to-gas transition between 2 and 20 Myr after the big bang, while planetary core oceans were between critical and freezing temperatures, and interchanges of material between planets constituted essentially a cosmological primordial soup. Images from optical, radio and infrared space telescopes suggest life on Earth was neither first nor inevitable.

DNA sequencing and predictions of the cosmic theory of life

The theory of cometary panspermia, developed by the late Sir Fred Hoyle and the present author argues that life originated cosmically as a unique event in one of a great multitude of comets or planetary bodies in the Universe. Life on Earth did not originate here but was introduced by impacting comets, and its further evolution was driven by the subsequent acquisition of cosmically derived genes. Explicit predictions of this theory published in 1979–1981, stating how the acquisition of new genes drives evolution, are compared with recent developments in relation to horizontal gene transfer, and the role of retroviruses in evolution. Precisely-stated predictions of the theory of cometary panspermia are shown to have been verified.

Evolution of primordial planets in relation to the cosmological origin of life

We explore the conditions prevailing in primordial planets in the framework of the HGD cosmologies as discussed by Gibson and Schild. The initial stages of condensation of planet-mass gas clouds is set at 300,000 yr (0.3My) following the onset of plasma instabilities when ambient temperatures were >1000K. Eventual collapse of the cloud into a solid structure, dominated by water-ice and organics takes place against the background of an expanding universe with declining ambient temperatures. Isothermal free fall collapse occurs initially via quasi equilibrium polytropes until opacity sets in due to molecule and dust formation. The contracting cooling cloud is a venue for molecule formation and the sequential condensation of solid particles, starting from mineral grains at high temperatures to ice particles at lower temperatures, Water-ice becomes thermodynamically stable between 7 and 15 My after the initial onset of collapse, and contraction to form a solid icy core begins shortly thereafter. The icy planet core, which includes a fraction of radioactive nuclides, 26Al and 60Fe, melts through interior heating. We show, using heat conduction calculations, that the interior domains remain liquid for tens of My for 300km and 1000km objects, but not for 30 or 50km objects. Initially planets are separated by relatively short distances, measured in tens to hundreds of AU, because of the high density of the early universe. Thus exchanges of materials, organic molecules and evolving templates could readily occur providing optimal conditions for an initial origin of life. The condensation of solid molecular hydrogen as an extended outer crust takes place much later in the collapse history of the protoplanet. When the object has shrunk to several times the radius of Jupiter, the hydrogen partial pressure exceeds the saturation vapour pressure of solid hydrogen at the ambient temperature and condensation occurs.

Possible biological structures in the Tissint Mars Meteorite

Preliminary SEM/EDAX studies of the Tissint meteorite shows projections of interior spherical globules rich in C and O. Such concentrations of carbonaceous material in a matrix of mineral grains pose a mystery. These structures are consistent with remnants of biological structures.

Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic?

We review the salient evidence consistent with or predicted by the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology. Much of this physical and biological evidence is multifactorial. One particular focus are the recent studies which date the emergence of the complex retroviruses of vertebrate lines at or just before the Cambrian Explosion of ∼500 Ma. Such viruses are known to be plausibly associated with major evolutionary genomic processes. We believe this coincidence is not fortuitous but is consistent with a key prediction of H-W theory whereby major extinction-diversification evolutionary boundaries coincide with virus-bearing cometary-bolide bombardment events. A second focus is the remarkable evolution of intelligent complexity (Cephalopods) culminating in the emergence of the Octopus. A third focus concerns the micro-organism fossil evidence contained within meteorites as well as the detection in the upper atmosphere of apparent incoming life-bearing particles from space. In our view the totality of the multifactorial data and critical analyses assembled by Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe and their many colleagues since the 1960s leads to a very plausible conclusion - life may have been seeded here on Earth by life-bearing comets as soon as conditions on Earth allowed it to flourish (about or just before 4.1 Billion years ago); and living organisms such as space-resistant and space-hardy bacteria, viruses, more complex eukaryotic cells, fertilised ova and seeds have been continuously delivered ever since to Earth so being one important driver of further terrestrial evolution which has resulted in considerable genetic diversity and which has led to the emergence of mankind.

Non-terrestrial origin of life: a transformative research paradigm shift

Theories and hypotheses in science are continually subject to verification, critical re-evaluation, revision and indeed evolution, in response to new observations and discoveries. Theories of the origin of life have been more constrained than other scientific theories and hypotheses in this regard, through the force of social and cultural pressures. There has been a tendency to adhere too rigidly to a class of theory that demands a purely terrestrial origin of life. For nearly five decades evidence in favour of a non-terrestrial origin of life and panspermia has accumulated which has not been properly assessed. A point has now been reached that demands the serious attention of biologists to a possibly transformative paradigm shift of the question of the origin of life, with profound implications across many disciplines.

Why don't clumps of cirrus dust gravitationally collapse?

We consider the Herschel?Planck infrared observations of presumed condensations of interstellar material at a measured temperature of approximately 14?K (Juvela et al 2012 Astron. Astrophys. 541 A12), the triple point temperature of hydrogen. The standard picture is challenged that the material is cirrus-like clouds of ceramic dust responsible for Halo extinction of cosmological sources (Finkbeiner, Davis and Schlegel 1999 Astrophys. J. 524 867). Why would such dust clouds not collapse gravitationally to a point on a gravitational free-fall time scale of 108 years? Why do the particles not collide and stick together, as is fundamental to the theory of planet formation (Blum 2004 PASP Conf. Ser. 309 369; Blum and Wurm 2008 Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 46 21) in pre-solar accretion discs? Evidence from 3.3 ?m and UIB emissions as well as extended red emission data point to the dominance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-type macromolecules for cirrus dust, but such fractal dust will not spin in the manner of rigid grains (Draine and Lazarian 1998 Astrophys. J. 494 L19). IRAS dust clouds examined by Herschel?Planck are easily understood as dark matter proto-globular-star-cluster clumps of primordial gas planets, as predicted by (Gibson 1996 Appl. Mech. Rev. 49 299?315) and observed by (Schild 1996 Astrophys. J. 464 125).

Primordial planets, comets, and moons foster life in the cosmos

A key result of hydrogravitational dynamics cosmology relevant to astrobiology is the early formation of vast numbers of hot primordial-gas planets in million-solar-mass clumps as the dark matter of galaxies and the hosts of first life. Photon viscous forces in the expanding universe of the turbulent big bang prevent fragmentations of the plasma for mass scales smaller than protogalaxies. At the plasma to gas transition 300,000 years after the big bang, the 107 decrease in kinematic viscosity ν explains why ~3x107 planets are observed to exist per star in typical galaxies like the Milky Way, not eight or nine. Stars form by a binary accretional cascade from Earth-mass primordial planets to progressively larger masses that collect and recycle the stardust chemicals of life produced when stars overeat and explode. The astonishing complexity of molecular biology observed on Earth is possible to explain only if enormous numbers of primordial planets and their fragments have hosted the formation and wide scattering of the seeds of life virtually from the beginning of time. Geochemical and biological evidence suggests that life on Earth appears at the earliest moment it can survive, in highly evolved forms with complexity requiring a time scale in excess of the age of the galaxy. This is quite impossible within standard cold-dark-matter cosmology where planets are relatively recent, rare and cold, completely lacking mechanisms for intergalactic transport of life forms.

Triton's eruptions analogous to comet Halley's?

Abstract We hypothesise that Tritons “geysers” are analogous to the remnant activity of comet Halley, whose outbursts producing a particulate coma are persisting out beyond 12 A.U. Halleys outbursts are understood as resulting from inward freezing of a subsurface lake or sea thats maintained at > 10 m depth via metabolic energy release. Cracking of the ice due to thermal expansion forces generates sporadic emissions of H 2 O and other gases. Analogous activity on Triton is a manifestation of internal freezing of an interior sea under a km or so of ice. This sea at the present epoch is quite separate from the interior liquid ocean, expected to be maintained at > 100 km deep by radiogenic heating. The near-surface sea is maintained also by chemical or metabolic energy and sporadically emits gases and condensates through cracks induced during its freezing. Emissions through the ice cover on both comets and Triton would drive surface geology, thus enabling access to new nutrients and trace elements that may be vital for subterranean biology. Tritons biology would be a relic from its tidal heating phase, when the interior was liquid below a 1–2 km frozen lithosphere. ∗

Microbiological investigation of two chondrite meteorites: Murchison and Polonnaruwa

The question of the contamination of meteorites by modern environmental microorganisms is an issue that has been raised since evidence for biological remains in carbonaceous meteorites was first published in the early 1960s.1-3 The contamination hypothesis has been raised for recent fossils of diatoms and filamentous cyanobacteria found embedded in the stones even though the nitrogen content of the fossils was below the 0.5% detection limit for Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) of the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope. All modern biological contaminants should have nitrogen content in the detectable range of 2% to 20% indicating the remains are ancient fossils rather than living or Holocene cells. In our work, the possibility that extremophilic bacteria from our lab collection might be able to metabolize organic matter in the studied meteorites was tested. The potential toxic or inhibitory growth effects were also checked for different anaerobic cultures. UV exposed meteorite samples with consequent sterile extraction of the internal part were subjected to anaerobic cultivation techniques. As a result, eight anaerobic strains were isolated from internal and exterior parts of the studied meteorites. Preliminary results of their morphology, cytology, physiology, and molecular (16SrRNA sequencing) studies are presented and discussed in this article.