Discovery of a cool planet of 5.5 Earth masses through gravitational microlensing

Resolved magnetohydrodynamic wave lensing in the solar corona

Electromagnetic wave lensing, a common physical phenomenon recognized in visible light for centuries, finds extensive applications in manipulating light in optical systems such as telescopes and cameras. Magnetohydrodynamic wave is a common perturbation phenomenon in the corona. By using high spatio-temporal resolution observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, here, we report the observation of a magnetohydrodynamic wave lensing in the highly ionized and magnetized coronal plasma, where quasi-periodic wavefronts emanated from a flare converged at a specific point after traversing a coronal hole. The entire process resembles an electromagnetic wave lensing from the source to the focus. Meanwhile, the magnetohydrodynamic wave lensing is well reproduced through a magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulation with full spatio-temporal resolution. We further investigate potential applications for coronal seismology, as the lensing process encodes information on the Alfvén speed, in conjunction with favorable geometric and density variations.

Subaru Telescope -History, active/adaptive optics, instruments, and scientific achievements

The Subaru Telescope^a) is an 8.2 m optical/infrared telescope constructed during 1991-1999 and has been operational since 2000 on the summit area of Maunakea, Hawaii, by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). This paper reviews the history, key engineering issues, and selected scientific achievements of the Subaru Telescope. The active optics for a thin primary mirror was the design backbone of the telescope to deliver a high-imaging performance. Adaptive optics with a laser-facility to generate an artificial guide-star improved the telescope vision to its diffraction limit by cancelling any atmospheric turbulence effect in real time. Various observational instruments, especially the wide-field camera, have enabled unique observational studies. Selected scientific topics include studies on cosmic reionization, weak/strong gravitational lensing, cosmological parameters, primordial black holes, the dynamical/chemical evolution/interactions of galaxies, neutron star mergers, supernovae, exoplanets, proto-planetary disks, and outliers of the solar system. The last described are operational statistics, plans and a note concerning the culture-and-science issues in Hawaii.

Approaching the Black Hole by Numerical Simulations

Black holes represent extreme conditions of physical laws. Predicted about a century ago, they are now accepted as astrophysical reality by most of the scientific community. Only recently has more direct evidence of their existence been found—the detection of gravitational waves from black hole mergers and of the shadow of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy. Astrophysical black holes are typically embedded in an active environment which is affected by the strong gravity. When the environmental material emits radiation, this radiation may carry imprints of the black hole that is hosting the radiation source. In order to understand the physical processes that take place in the close neighborhood of astrophysical black holes, numerical methods and simulations play an essential role. This is simply because the dynamical evolution and the radiative interaction are far too complex in order to allow for an analytic solution of the physical equations. A huge progress has been made over the last decade(s) in the numerical code development, as well as in the computer power that is needed to run these codes. This review tries to summarize the basic questions and methods that are involved in the undertaking of investigating the astrophysics of black holes by numerical means. It is intended for a non-expert audience interested in an overview over this broad field. The review comes along without equations and thus without a detailed expert discussion of the underlying physical processes or numerical specifics. Instead, it intends to illustrate the richness of the field and to motivate further reading. The review puts some emphasis on magneto-hydrodynamic simulations but also touches radiation transfer and merger simulations, in particular pointing out differences in these approaches.

Microlensing Searches for Exoplanets

Gravitational microlensing finds planets through their gravitational influence on the light coming from a more distant background star. The presence of the planet is then inferred from the tell-tale brightness variations of the background star during the lensing event, even if no light is detectable from the planet or the host foreground star. This review covers fundamental theoretical concepts in microlensing, addresses how observations are performed in practice, the challenges of obtaining accurate measurements, and explains how planets reveal themselves in the data. It concludes with a presentation of the most important findings to-date, a description of the method’s strengths and weaknesses, and a discussion of the future prospects of microlensing.

A Review on Substellar Objects below the Deuterium Burning Mass Limit: Planets, Brown Dwarfs or What?

“Free-floating, non-deuterium-burning, substellar objects” are isolated bodies of a few Jupiter masses found in very young open clusters and associations, nearby young moving groups, and in the immediate vicinity of the Sun. They are neither brown dwarfs nor planets. In this paper, their nomenclature, history of discovery, sites of detection, formation mechanisms, and future directions of research are reviewed. Most free-floating, non-deuterium-burning, substellar objects share the same formation mechanism as low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, but there are still a few caveats, such as the value of the opacity mass limit, the minimum mass at which an isolated body can form via turbulent fragmentation from a cloud. The least massive free-floating substellar objects found to date have masses of about 0.004 Msol, but current and future surveys should aim at breaking this record. For that, we may need LSST, Euclid and WFIRST.

Relativistic deflection of background starlight measures the mass of a nearby white dwarf star

Gravitational deflection of starlight around the Sun during the 1919 total solar eclipse provided measurements that confirmed Einstein's general theory of relativity. We have used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the analogous process of astrometric microlensing caused by a nearby star, the white dwarf Stein 2051 B. As Stein 2051 B passed closely in front of a background star, the background star's position was deflected. Measurement of this deflection at multiple epochs allowed us to determine the mass of Stein 2051 B-the sixth-nearest white dwarf to the Sun-as 0.675 ± 0.051 solar masses. This mass determination provides confirmation of the physics of degenerate matter and lends support to white dwarf evolutionary theory.

Probing ice VII crystallization from amorphous NaCl–D2O solutions at gigapascal pressures

The high density amorphous solution NaCl·10.2D₂O crystallises at 260 K as almost pure ice VII during annealing at gigapascal pressures.

Microlensing detection of extrasolar planets

We review the method of exoplanetary microlensing with a focus on two-body planetary lensing systems. The physical properties of planetary systems can be successfully measured by means of a deep analysis of lightcurves and high-resolution imaging of planetary systems, countering the concern that microlensing cannot determine planetary masses and orbital radii. Ground-based observers have had success in diagnosing properties of multi-planet systems from a few events, but space-based observations will be much more powerful and statistically more complete. Since microlensing is most sensitive to exoplanets beyond the snow line, whose statistics, in turn, allow for testing current planetary formation and evolution theories, we investigate the retrieval of semi-major axis density by a microlensing space-based survey with realistic parameters. Making use of a published statistical method for projected exoplanets quantities (Brown 2011), we find that one year of such a survey might distinguish between simple power-law semi-major axis densities. We conclude by briefly reviewing ground-based results hinting at a high abundance of free-floating planets and describing the potential contribution of space-based missions to understanding the frequency and mass distribution of these intriguing objects, which could help unveil the formation processes of planetary systems.

High pressure ices

H(2)O will be more resistant to metallization than previously thought. From computational evolutionary structure searches, we find a sequence of new stable and meta-stable structures for the ground state of ice in the 1-5 TPa (10 to 50 Mbar) regime, in the static approximation. The previously proposed Pbcm structure is superseded by a Pmc2(1) phase at p = 930 GPa, followed by a predicted transition to a P2(1) crystal structure at p = 1.3 TPa. This phase, featuring higher coordination at O and H, is stable over a wide pressure range, reaching 4.8 TPa. We analyze carefully the geometrical changes in the calculated structures, especially the buckling at the H in O-H-O motifs. All structures are insulating--chemistry burns a deep and (with pressure increase) lasting hole in the density of states near the highest occupied electronic levels of what might be component metallic lattices. Metallization of ice in our calculations occurs only near 4.8 TPa, where the metallic C2/m phase becomes most stable. In this regime, zero-point energies much larger than typical enthalpy differences suggest possible melting of the H sublattice, or even the entire crystal.

Extra-terrestrial life in the European Space Agency's Cosmic Vision plan and beyond

Our exciting time allows us to contemplate the moment in the not-too-distant future when we can detect the presence of life on worlds orbiting stars other than our Sun. It will not be easy and will require the development and use of the very latest technologies. It also very probably demands deployment in space of relevant instrumentation in order to carry out these investigations. The European Space Agency has been involved in the studies and development of the required technologies for more than a decade and is currently formulating a roadmap for how to achieve the ultimate detection of signs of life as we know it on terrestrial exoplanets. The major elements of the roadmap consist of the following. First, the search for and detection of terrestrial exoplanets. Here, some progress has been made recently and is reported in this paper. Second, the more and more detailed study of the physical characteristics of such exoplanets. Finally, the search for biomarkers--indicators of biological activity--that can be observed at interstellar distances. The last is probably one of the most difficult problems ever contemplated by observational astronomy.

The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society

Astronomers are now able to detect planets orbiting stars other than the Sun where life may exist, and living generations could see the signatures of extra-terrestrial life being detected. Should it turn out that we are not alone in the Universe, it will fundamentally affect how humanity understands itself--and we need to be prepared for the consequences. A Discussion Meeting held at the Royal Society in London, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, on 25-26 January 2010, addressed not only the scientific but also the societal agenda, with presentations covering a large diversity of topics.

Prediction of a hexagonal SiO2 phase affecting stabilities of MgSiO3 and CaSiO3 at multimegabar pressures

Ultrahigh-pressure phase relationship of SiO(2) silica in multimegabar pressure condition is still quite unclear. Here, we report a theoretical prediction on a previously uncharacterized stable structure of silica with an unexpected hexagonal Fe(2)P-type form. This phase, more stable than the cotunnite-type structure, a previously postulated postpyrite phase, was discovered to stabilize at 640 GPa through a careful structure search by means of ab initio density functional computations over various structure models. This is the first evidential result of the pressure-induced phase transition to the Fe(2)P-type structure among all dioxide compounds. The crystal structure consists of closely packed, fairly regular SiO(9) tricapped trigonal prisms with a significantly compact lattice. Additional investigation further elucidates large effects of this phase change in SiO(2) on the stability of MgSiO(3) and CaSiO(3) at multimegabar pressures. A postperovskite phase of MgSiO(3) breaks down at 1.04 TPa along an assumed adiabat of super-Earths and yields Fe(2)P-type SiO(2) and CsCl (B2)-type MgO. CaSiO(3) perovskite, on the other hand, directly dissociates into SiO(2) and metallic CaO, skipping a postperovskite polymorph. Predicted ultrahigh-pressure and temperature phase diagrams of SiO(2), MgSiO(3), and CaSiO(3) indicate that the Fe(2)P-type SiO(2) could be one of the dominant components in the deep mantles of terrestrial exoplanets and the cores of gas giants.

Studying planet populations with Einstein's blip

Although Einstein originally judged that 'there is no great chance of observing this phenomenon', the 'most curious effect' of the bending of starlight by the gravity of intervening foreground stars--now commonly referred to as 'gravitational microlensing'--has become one of the successfully applied techniques to detect planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, while being quite unlike any other. With more than 400 extra-solar planets known altogether, the discovery of a true sibling of our home planet seems to have become simply a question of time. However, in order to properly understand the origin of Earth, carrying all its various life forms, models of planet formation and orbital evolution need to be brought into agreement with the statistics of the full variety of planets like Earth and unlike Earth. Given the complementarity of the currently applied planet detection techniques, a comprehensive picture will only arise from a combination of their respective findings. Gravitational microlensing favours a range of orbital separations that covers planets whose orbital periods are too long to allow detection by other indirect techniques, but which are still too close to their host star to be detected by means of their emitted or reflected light. Rather than being limited to the Solar neighbourhood, a unique opportunity is provided for inferring a census of planets orbiting stars belonging to two distinct populations within the Milky Way, with a sensitivity not only reaching down to Earth mass, but even below, with ground-based observations. The capabilities of gravitational microlensing extend even to obtaining evidence of a planet orbiting a star in another galaxy.

Gravitational lensing: a unique probe of dark matter and dark energy

I review the development of gravitational lensing as a powerful tool of the observational cosmologist. After the historic eclipse expedition organized by Arthur Eddington and Frank Dyson, the subject lay observationally dormant for 60 years. However, subsequent progress has been astonishingly rapid, especially in the past decade, so that gravitational lensing now holds the key to unravelling the two most profound mysteries of our Universe-the nature and distribution of dark matter, and the origin of the puzzling cosmic acceleration first identified in the late 1990s. In this non-specialist review, I focus on the unusual history and achievements of gravitational lensing and its future observational prospects.

A super-Earth transiting a nearby low-mass star

A decade ago, the detection of the first transiting extrasolar planet provided a direct constraint on its composition and opened the door to spectroscopic investigations of extrasolar planetary atmospheres. Because such characterization studies are feasible only for transiting systems that are both nearby and for which the planet-to-star radius ratio is relatively large, nearby small stars have been surveyed intensively. Doppler studies and microlensing have uncovered a population of planets with minimum masses of 1.9-10 times the Earth's mass (M[symbol:see text]), called super-Earths. The first constraint on the bulk composition of this novel class of planets was afforded by CoRoT-7b (refs 8, 9), but the distance and size of its star preclude atmospheric studies in the foreseeable future. Here we report observations of the transiting planet GJ 1214b, which has a mass of 6.55M[symbol:see text]), and a radius 2.68 times Earth's radius (R[symbol:see text]), indicating that it is intermediate in stature between Earth and the ice giants of the Solar System. We find that the planetary mass and radius are consistent with a composition of primarily water enshrouded by a hydrogen-helium envelope that is only 0.05% of the mass of the planet. The atmosphere is probably escaping hydrodynamically, indicating that it has undergone significant evolution during its history. The star is small and only 13 parsecs away, so the planetary atmosphere is amenable to study with current observatories.

Stellar aspects of habitability--characterizing target stars for terrestrial planet-finding missions

We present and discuss the criteria for selecting potential target stars suitable for the search for Earth-like planets, with a special emphasis on the stellar aspects of habitability. Missions that search for terrestrial exoplanets will explore the presence and habitability of Earth-like exoplanets around several hundred nearby stars, mainly F, G, K, and M stars. The evaluation of the list of potential target systems is essential in order to develop mission concepts for a search for terrestrial exoplanets. Using the Darwin All Sky Star Catalogue (DASSC), we discuss the selection criteria, configuration-dependent subcatalogues, and the implication of stellar activity for habitability.

The search for worlds like our own

The direct detection of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting nearby stars and the characterization of such planets-particularly, their evolution, their atmospheres, and their ability to host life-constitute a significant problem. The quest for other worlds as abodes of life has been one of mankind's great questions for several millennia. For instance, as stated by Epicurus approximately 300 BC: "Other worlds, with plants and other living things, some of them similar and some of them different from ours, must exist." Demokritos from Abdera (460-370 BC), the man who invented the concept of indivisible small parts-atoms-also held the belief that other worlds exist around the stars and that some of these worlds may be inhabited by life-forms. The idea of the plurality of worlds and of life on them has since been held by scientists like Johannes Kepler and William Herschel, among many others. Here, one must also mention Giordano Bruno. Born in 1548, Bruno studied in France and came into contact with the teachings of Nicolas Copernicus. He wrote the book De l'Infinito, Universo e Mondi in 1584, in which he claimed that the Universe was infinite, that it contained an infinite amount of worlds like Earth, and that these worlds were inhabited by intelligent beings. At the time, this was extremely controversial, and eventually Bruno was arrested by the church and burned at the stake in Rome in 1600, as a heretic, for promoting this and other equally confrontational issues (though it is unclear exactly which idea was the one that ultimately brought him to his end). In all the aforementioned cases, the opinions and results were arrived at through reasoning-not by experiment. We have only recently acquired the technological capability to observe planets orbiting stars other than 6 our Sun; acquisition of this capability has been a remarkable feat of our time. We show in this introduction to the Habitability Primer that mankind is at the dawning of an age when, by way of the scientific method and 21(st)-century technology, we will be able to answer this fascinating controversial issue that has persisted for at least 2500 years.

A reappraisal of the habitability of planets around M dwarf stars

Stable, hydrogen-burning, M dwarf stars make up about 75% of all stars in the Galaxy. They are extremely long-lived, and because they are much smaller in mass than the Sun (between 0.5 and 0.08 M(Sun)), their temperature and stellar luminosity are low and peaked in the red. We have re-examined what is known at present about the potential for a terrestrial planet forming within, or migrating into, the classic liquid-surface-water habitable zone close to an M dwarf star. Observations of protoplanetary disks suggest that planet-building materials are common around M dwarfs, but N-body simulations differ in their estimations of the likelihood of potentially habitable, wet planets that reside within their habitable zones, which are only about one-fifth to 1/50th of the width of that for a G star. Particularly in light of the claimed detection of the planets with masses as small as 5.5 and 7.5 M(Earth) orbiting M stars, there seems no reason to exclude the possibility of terrestrial planets. Tidally locked synchronous rotation within the narrow habitable zone does not necessarily lead to atmospheric collapse, and active stellar flaring may not be as much of an evolutionarily disadvantageous factor as has previously been supposed. We conclude that M dwarf stars may indeed be viable hosts for planets on which the origin and evolution of life can occur. A number of planetary processes such as cessation of geothermal activity or thermal and nonthermal atmospheric loss processes may limit the duration of planetary habitability to periods far shorter than the extreme lifetime of the M dwarf star. Nevertheless, it makes sense to include M dwarf stars in programs that seek to find habitable worlds and evidence of life. This paper presents the summary conclusions of an interdisciplinary workshop (http://mstars.seti.org) sponsored by the NASA Astrobiology Institute and convened at the SETI Institute.

M stars as targets for terrestrial exoplanet searches and biosignature detection

The changing view of planets orbiting low mass stars, M stars, as potentially hospitable worlds for life and its remote detection was motivated by several factors, including the demonstration of viable atmospheres and oceans on tidally locked planets, normal incidence of dust disks, including debris disks, detection of planets with masses in the 5-20 M() range, and predictions of unusually strong spectral biosignatures. We present a critical discussion of M star properties that are relevant for the long- and short-term thermal, dynamical, geological, and environmental stability of conventional liquid water habitable zone (HZ) M star planets, and the advantages and disadvantages of M stars as targets in searches for terrestrial HZ planets using various detection techniques. Biological viability seems supported by unmatched very long-term stability conferred by tidal locking, small HZ size, an apparent short-fall of gas giant planet perturbers, immunity to large astrosphere compressions, and several other factors, assuming incidence and evolutionary rate of life benefit from lack of variability. Tectonic regulation of climate and dynamo generation of a protective magnetic field, especially for a planet in synchronous rotation, are important unresolved questions that must await improved geodynamic models, though they both probably impose constraints on the planet mass. M star HZ terrestrial planets must survive a number of early trials in order to enjoy their many Gyr of stability. Their formation may be jeopardized by an insufficient initial disk supply of solids, resulting in the formation of objects too small and/or dry for habitability. The small empirical gas giant fraction for M stars reduces the risk of formation suppression or orbit disruption from either migrating or nonmigrating giant planets, but effects of perturbations from lower mass planets in these systems are uncertain. During the first approximately 1 Gyr, atmospheric retention is at peril because of intense and frequent stellar flares and sporadic energetic particle events, and impact erosion, both enhanced, the former dramatically, for M star HZ semimajor axes. Loss of atmosphere by interactions with energetic particles is likely unless the planetary magnetic moment is sufficiently large. For the smallest stellar masses a period of high planetary surface temperature, while the parent star approaches the main sequence, must be endured. The formation and retention of a thick atmosphere and a strong magnetic field as buffers for a sufficiently massive planet emerge as prerequisites for an M star planet to enter a long period of stability with its habitability intact. However, the star will then be subjected to short-term fluctuations with consequences including frequent unpredictable variation in atmospheric chemistry and surficial radiation field. After a review of evidence concerning disks and planets associated with M stars, we evaluate M stars as targets for future HZ planet search programs. Strong advantages of M stars for most approaches to HZ detection are offset by their faintness, leading to severe constraints due to accessible sample size, stellar crowding (transits), or angular size of the HZ (direct imaging). Gravitational lensing is unlikely to detect HZ M star planets because the HZ size decreases with mass faster than the Einstein ring size to which the method is sensitive. M star Earth-twin planets are predicted to exhibit surprisingly strong bands of nitrous oxide, methyl chloride, and methane, and work on signatures for other climate categories is summarized. The rest of the paper is devoted to an examination of evidence and implications of the unusual radiation and particle environments for atmospheric chemistry and surface radiation doses, and is summarized in the Synopsis. We conclude that attempts at remote sensing of biosignatures and nonbiological markers from M star planets are important, not as tests of any quantitative theories or rational arguments, but instead because they offer an inspection of the residues from a Gyr-long biochemistry experiment in the presence of extreme environmental fluctuations. A detection or repeated nondetections could provide a unique opportunity to partially answer a fundamental and recurrent question about the relation between stability and complexity, one that is not addressed by remote detection from a planet orbiting a solar-like star, and can only be studied on Earth using restricted microbial systems in serial evolution experiments or in artificial life simulations. This proposal requires a planet that has retained its atmosphere and a water supply. The discussion given here suggests that observations of M star exoplanets can decide this latter question with only slight modifications to plans already in place for direct imaging terrestrial exoplanet missions.

Spectral signatures of photosynthesis. II. Coevolution with other stars and the atmosphere on extrasolar worlds

As photosynthesis on Earth produces the primary signatures of life that can be detected astronomically at the global scale, a strong focus of the search for extrasolar life will be photosynthesis, particularly photosynthesis that has evolved with a different parent star. We take previously simulated planetary atmospheric compositions for Earth-like planets around observed F2V and K2V, modeled M1V and M5V stars, and around the active M4.5V star AD Leo; our scenarios use Earth's atmospheric composition as well as very low O2 content in case anoxygenic photosynthesis dominates. With a line-by-line radiative transfer model, we calculate the incident spectral photon flux densities at the surface of the planet and under water. We identify bands of available photosynthetically relevant radiation and find that photosynthetic pigments on planets around F2V stars may peak in absorbance in the blue, K2V in the red-orange, and M stars in the near-infrared, in bands at 0.93-1.1 microm, 1.1-1.4 microm, 1.5-1.8 microm, and 1.8-2.5 microm. However, underwater organisms will be restricted to wavelengths shorter than 1.4 microm and more likely below 1.1 microm. M star planets without oxygenic photosynthesis will have photon fluxes above 1.6 microm curtailed by methane. Longer-wavelength, multi-photo-system series would reduce the quantum yield but could allow for oxygenic photosystems at longer wavelengths. A wavelength of 1.1 microm is a possible upper cutoff for electronic transitions versus only vibrational energy; however, this cutoff is not strict, since such energetics depend on molecular configuration. M star planets could be a half to a tenth as productive as Earth in the visible, but exceed Earth if useful photons extend to 1.1 microm for anoxygenic photosynthesis. Under water, organisms would still be able to survive ultraviolet flares from young M stars and acquire adequate light for growth.

Characterizing extrasolar terrestrial planets with reflected, emitted and transmitted spectra

NASA and ESA are planning missions to directly detect and characterize terrestrial planets outside our solar system (nominally NASA-Terrestrial Planet Finder and ESA-DARWIN missions). These missions will provide our first opportunity to spectroscopically study the global characteristics of those planets, and search for signs of habitability and life. We have used spatially and spectrally-resolved models to explore the observational sensitivity to changes in atmospheric and surface properties, and the detectability of surface biosignatures, in the globally averaged spectra and light-curves of the Earth. Atmospheric signatures of Earth-size exoplanets might be detected, in a near future, by stellar occultation as well. Detectability depends on planet's size, atmospheric composition, cloud cover and stellar type. According to our simulations, Earth's land vegetation signature (red-edge) is potentially visible in the disk-averaged spectra, even with cloud cover, and when the signal is averaged over the daily time scale. Marine vegetation is far more difficult to detect. We explored also the detectability of an exo-vegetation responsible for producing a signature that is red-shifted with respect to the Earth vegetation's one.

Transiting extrasolar planetary candidates in the Galactic bulge

More than 200 extrasolar planets have been discovered around relatively nearby stars, primarily through the Doppler line shifts owing to reflex motions of their host stars, and more recently through transits of some planets across the faces of the host stars. The detection of planets with the shortest known periods, 1.2-2.5 days, has mainly resulted from transit surveys which have generally targeted stars more massive than 0.75 M(o), where M(o) is the mass of the Sun. Here we report the results from a planetary transit search performed in a rich stellar field towards the Galactic bulge. We discovered 16 candidates with orbital periods between 0.4 and 4.2 days, five of which orbit stars of masses in the range 0.44-0.75 M(o). In two cases, radial-velocity measurements support the planetary nature of the companions. Five candidates have orbital periods below 1.0 day, constituting a new class of ultra-short-period planets, which occur only around stars of less than 0.88 M(o). This indicates that those orbiting very close to more-luminous stars might be evaporatively destroyed or that jovian planets around stars of lower mass might migrate to smaller radii.

Experimentally tracing the key steps in the origin of life: The aromatic world

Life is generally believed to emerge on Earth, to be at least functionally similar to life as we know it today, and to be much simpler than modern life. Although minimal life is notoriously difficult to define, a molecular system can be considered alive if it turns resources into building blocks, replicates, and evolves. Primitive life may have consisted of a compartmentalized genetic system coupled with an energy-harvesting mechanism. How prebiotic building blocks self-assemble and transform themselves into a minimal living system can be broken into two questions: (1) How can prebiotic building blocks form containers, metabolic networks, and informational polymers? (2) How can these three components cooperatively organize to form a protocell that satisfies the minimal requirements for a living system? The functional integration of these components is a difficult puzzle that requires cooperation among all the aspects of protocell assembly: starting material, reaction mechanisms, thermodynamics, and the integration of the inheritance, metabolism, and container functionalities. Protocells may have been self-assembled from components different from those used in modern biochemistry. We propose that assemblies based on aromatic hydrocarbons may have been the most abundant flexible and stable organic materials on the primitive Earth and discuss their possible integration into a minimal life form. In this paper we attempt to combine current knowledge of the composition of prebiotic organic material of extraterrestrial and terrestrial origin, and put these in the context of possible prebiotic scenarios. We also describe laboratory experiments that might help clarify the transition from nonliving to living matter using aromatic material. This paper presents an interdisciplinary approach to interface state of the art knowledge in astrochemistry, prebiotic chemistry, and artificial life research.