Space Gas – Proof of Aliens?
“Electrically charged specks of interstellar dust organize into DNA-like double helixes and display properties normally attributed to living systems, such as evolving and reproducing, new computer simulations show.” (source)
Currently, many scientists believe that life evolved as a result of amino acids forming RNA. RNA has been successfully built in the lab with very basic components. Additionally, RNA can have the ability to self replicate. Self replication naturally leads to evolution. The RNA strands which are the most successful at propagating themselves would eventually out compete other RNA strands, causing the population to change or evolve.
Seeing an example of naturally occurring self replication outside of earth is a big deal. This offers a completely different path to evolution. Even if self-replicating gas would never lead to complex life, finding self-replication in such an unlikely environment, during the relatively brief period we’ve been able to look for such things, shows there are probably many ways for evolution to begin. This vastly increases the odds of alien life. It also has the potential to debunk the Drake Equation.
The Drake Equation is often used to calculate the number of civilizations in our galaxy which we might be able to communicate with. This equation takes many factors into account, including the number of planets that can sustain life. While the equation itself makes some sense, it’s hard to know which values to give to each of the factors. We have fairly good guesses for factors like R*(the rate of star formation). But the values for factors like Fi “the fraction of planets which have life that develop intelligent life” are pretty much shots in the dark.
The Drake Equation depends on the idea that life requires planets. If life can evolve outside of planets, the Drake Equation needs to be adjusted. The factors R*, fp, and ne all become irrelevant. The factor fl needs to be changed to something like: the number of lifeforms with independent origins. The remaining elements of the equation can remain untouched. Ironically, the remaining variables, fl, fi, fc, and L are the ones whose values we know the least about. It’s still not possible to calculate the odds, but seeing an example of self-replication in space sure makes it seem more likely.