suhail jalbout
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WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF OUR EXISTENCE?
BY SUHAIL M. JALBOUT
Why did life emerge on our planet and how? These are questions that have been for many years the concern of humans in general and scientists in particular. If a logical explanation can be presented to reveal the secrets of life on our planet, then it may be possible to predict the process and possibilities for the emergence of similar life in our universe.
Most life forms on Earth require three main basic elements to survive. These elements are: water, oxygen, and ozone. There is scientific evidence to confirm that these elements, including single-cell organisms, occurred on Earth at approximately the same time 3.8 billion years ago. At this early date, Earth experienced the following dramatic changes which triggered the emergence of life and its survival:
THE ORIGIN OF WATER ON EARTH
Planet Earth is the only planet in our solar system with huge amounts of water covering 70.8% of its surface. The estimated volume of all the existing water on Earth is about 0.3325 billion cubic miles (1.386 billion cubic km).4 This volume represents a water-sphere with 861 miles (1,385 km) diameter. To put things in perspective, the Moon has a diameter of 2,160 miles (3,476 km).
The origin of Earth’s water still remains an enigma. There are two possibilities: either the water existed at the time the Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago or it was deposited on Earth by the bombardment of comets, “wet” asteroids and “wet” meteorites. Since Earth was a molten magma at the time of its formation, probably most of its original water content would have boiled, evaporated and lost to outer space. However, the determining factor for the second possibility is the value of the isotopic ratio of hydrogen in solar bodies. Measurement of the deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratio of water in different solar bodies over the years did not match the D/H ratio of our oceanic waters.5
Consequently, there must be another source that contributed to the major volume of our water on Earth. Let us investigate the possibility that Earth had a water-ice ring in its orbit during the evolution of our protoplanetary disk.
When our planets were formed, they each had rings around their equator. The rings of the planets that were outside the Roche limit formed moons but those within the limit either remained or disappeared.6 The outside planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune still have their rings. The rings of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars vanished.7
To explain this phenomenon, scientists believe that during the evolution of our solar system the orbits of the outside planets were always outside the ice, or snow, or frost line while the orbits of the inner planets were within.8 As a result, water-ice rings were formed and remained around the outside planets, but the rings that were around the inner planets did not contain water-ice. The water would have boiled and evaporated due to the enormous heat of the Sun.
One wonders whether the ice line remained always outside the orbits of the inner planets or migrated inwards within their orbits during the evolution of our protoplanetary disk. If it did migrate to within the orbit of Earth, then it is possible for water-ice rings and chunks of ice to form around Mars and Earth since the protoplanetary disk could still be optically thick.
Until recently mathematical theories and computer simulations about our solar system were based only on our existing model. However, few of these theories were modified and new theories were formulated as a result of the discovery of all kinds of solar systems in space where giant exoplanets are orbiting at close proximity to their parent stars.9
One of the recent new theories is on protoplanetary disks which reveal the behavior of the ice line during the evolution of our solar system. The theory implies that the ice line should migrate inwards as the viscous dissipation decreases with time. This causes the accretion rate to drop and the disk to cool. Due to these conditions, the ice line can reach a distance well within Earth’s orbit [0.60 AU as calculated by S.S. Davis (2005)].10 However, the ice line migrates outward again as the temperature increases once the disk becomes optically thin [as confirmed by P. Garaud & D.N.C. Lin (2007)].10
According to this analysis, it is quite possible that Venus, Earth, and Mars had small amounts of water in their orbits as compared to the huge amount of water that exists in our solar system. The estimated total mass of our water is only 0.02% of the total mass of Earth. This volume of water can easily flood our planet in case the water-ice ring collapses towards Earth.
Assuming Earth had a water-ice ring, the question that follows is: why should it collapse?
As our protoplanetary disk becomes more and more optically thin, the ice line will migrate outwards and is pushed more and more away from the Sun due to its heat. When the ice line approaches the orbit of Earth, the water-ice ring that is facing the Sun will heat-up, boil, and evaporate. However, the evaporated water will conversely condense and re-accrete in the shadow of Earth forming huge chunks of ice and rocks. These chunks are unable to maintain their orbit around the Earth, because of their orbital angular momentum, leading to their collapse. Once the ice-line coincides with the orbit of Earth, the water-ice ring most probably would have completely disappeared. The major portion would have flooded Earth with water creating oceans, while the remaining portion would have been lost to space.
Scientists believe that our planet was bombarded by asteroids or meteorites between 4.0 and 3.8 billion years ago. This period is known as the “Late Heavy Bombardment or LHB”.11 It seems that the LHB did not leave any evidence on Earth. This is due to the dynamic activities of our plant in addition to the active erosion which insures that its surface is continually renewed. However, the LHB could very well be due to the bombardment of the chunks of ice and rocks that were formed from the collapsed water-ice ring. This reasoning is based on the fact that these chunks had the same D/H ratio and contained enough water to create our oceans.
We can thus predict that Earth received the major part of its water from the ring that was in its orbit during a short period of time. Studies of the D/H ratio of the water in our oceans to the waters found in comets and other solar bodies did not match. In fact, ESA Herschel Space Observatory spent years searching for waters in space that are identical to the water on Earth. It discovered recently only one comet (103P/Hartley-2) containing water that is similar in composition to our oceanic waters.12 This is good news because it proves that the type of water on Earth exists in our solar system. Consequently, it is highly probable that the water-ice ring that was in Earth’s orbit had the same D/H ratio as our oceans.
In conclusion, the collapsed water-ice ring most probably flooded our planet with water 3.8 billion years ago. This means that the origin of the major part of our oceans is from one source and not from multi-sources.
ORIGIN OF OXYGEN IN EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE
Most scientists agree that there was no free oxygen in the original primitive atmosphere of early Earth (between 3.8 and 4.6 billion years ago) and that the original atmosphere, some believe, was composed of methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water.13 Other scientists, on the other hand, believe that as Earth began to develop a solid crust (about 4 billion years ago), gases from volcanic eruptions formed an atmosphere composed of elements similar to those present in volcanic emanations.14 These theories together suggest that Earth’s early atmosphere consisted of: water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), and other small amounts of miscellaneous gases.
It seems that free oxygen was produced on the Earth around 2.5 billion years ago. It was generated by photosynthesizing organisms known as cyanobacteria or blue-green algae. These tiny organisms conduct photosynthesis by using ordinary sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and oxygen. Since these organisms lived in oceans, the oxygen molecules they produced bubbled up from the oceans into the atmosphere. The presence of oxygen changed the composition of the early atmosphere into the present oxidizing atmosphere consisting of: nitrogen (N2 -78%), oxygen (O2– 21%), and other gases such as water and carbon dioxide.15
However, recent research revealed that oxygen existed in abundance in the atmosphere of planet Earth much earlier in time about 3.46 billion years ago. “An article was published in Nature Geoscience, suggests that oxygen was present in the atmosphere as early as 3.46 billion years ago. This latest research was jointly supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Kagoshima University, University of Tokyo and the Department of Geosciences, and the Pennsylvania State University. Masamichi Hoashi and his co-workers looked at the hematite-rich chert (chert is a brittle sedimentary rock) obtained from the deep drill core in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. Hematite is produced through oxidation process, so dating ancient sources of hematite can be used to discover when oxygen was present on Earth”.16
Another article that appeared in New Scientist (issue 2905, published 23 February 2013) suggests that oxygen was present in Earth’s atmosphere as early as 3.8 billion years: “The oldest sedimentary rocks date back 3.8 billion years and have puzzling deposits of oxides”.2
There seems to be a problem here! Blue-green algae were producing oxygen in oceans 2.5 billon years ago, but recent research revealed that oxygen existed in abundance on Earth about 1.3 billion years earlier. In the absence of blue-green algae that early in time, what then did produce this oxygen?
Returning to the theory that Earth had a water-ice ring around it could answer this problem. When the water-ice ring collapsed and entered the early atmosphere of the Earth, a large percentage of its water-ice evaporated due to friction. Since the ring contained at least 1.386x1018 tons of water, a large part of the atmosphere became completely saturated with water vapor extending from the surface of the Earth to very high levels in the atmosphere. Water molecules and dust particles from volcanic eruptions formed enormous electrically charged clouds over the Earth’s surface. As a result, lightening with immense intensity dominated the skies of our planet. These new conditions paved the way for the production of oxygen and ozone by the following two methods:
PHOTOCHEMICAL DISSOCIATION17
The photochemical dissociation hypothesis indicates that ozone is produced in the upper atmosphere through photochemical reactions involving UV radiation and water:
2H2O + UV radiation = 2H2 + O2 and
2O2 + UV radiation = O3 + O and
O + O2 = O3
This means that an ozone layer and oxygen were formed in the upper levels of the atmosphere. The ozone layer shielded the ultraviolet light and reduced its harmful effects on living forms.
ELECTROLYTIC OXYGEN AND OZONE GENERATION
Together, the highly charged clouds and the surface of Earth acted as a gigantic electrolytic oxygen and ozone generator. The discharge of electrons (during lightening, between the charged clouds and Earth’s surface) dissociated water molecules and produced hydrogen, oxygen, and ozone. It is to be noted that ozone is created in nature by lightning and can be smelled after a storm.18 The newly formed ozone ascended to the upper levels of the atmosphere and joined in the formation of the ozone shield. While the newly formed free oxygen combined with the gases of the original primitive atmosphere to form an intermediate atmosphere about 3.8 billion years ago. For example:
1. Oxygen combined with methane to produce carbon dioxide and water: (CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O)
2. Oxygen combined with ammonia to produce nitrogen and water: (4NH3 + 3O2 = 2N2 + 6H2O)
3. Hydrogen combined with oxygen to form water: (2H2 + O2 = 2H2O)
The newly formed intermediate atmosphere consisted mainly of: nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, water, and small amount of oxygen. A large percentage of the oxygen that was generated formed the ozone layer and combined with the gases of the early atmosphere.
In conclusion, the collapsed water-ice ring produced an oxygen enriched atmosphere and an ozone shield 3.8 billion years ago on our planet.
BY SUHAIL M. JALBOUT
Why did life emerge on our planet and how? These are questions that have been for many years the concern of humans in general and scientists in particular. If a logical explanation can be presented to reveal the secrets of life on our planet, then it may be possible to predict the process and possibilities for the emergence of similar life in our universe.
Most life forms on Earth require three main basic elements to survive. These elements are: water, oxygen, and ozone. There is scientific evidence to confirm that these elements, including single-cell organisms, occurred on Earth at approximately the same time 3.8 billion years ago. At this early date, Earth experienced the following dramatic changes which triggered the emergence of life and its survival:
- Oceans were formed on Earth’s surface.1
- Its original primitive atmosphere became oxygen enriched almost to the same level as ours today.2
- An ozone layer was formed in the upper parts of the atmosphere shielding the harmful effects of UV radiation on Earth’s life forms (cause and effect).
- Single-cell organisms appeared for the first time.3
THE ORIGIN OF WATER ON EARTH
Planet Earth is the only planet in our solar system with huge amounts of water covering 70.8% of its surface. The estimated volume of all the existing water on Earth is about 0.3325 billion cubic miles (1.386 billion cubic km).4 This volume represents a water-sphere with 861 miles (1,385 km) diameter. To put things in perspective, the Moon has a diameter of 2,160 miles (3,476 km).
The origin of Earth’s water still remains an enigma. There are two possibilities: either the water existed at the time the Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago or it was deposited on Earth by the bombardment of comets, “wet” asteroids and “wet” meteorites. Since Earth was a molten magma at the time of its formation, probably most of its original water content would have boiled, evaporated and lost to outer space. However, the determining factor for the second possibility is the value of the isotopic ratio of hydrogen in solar bodies. Measurement of the deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratio of water in different solar bodies over the years did not match the D/H ratio of our oceanic waters.5
Consequently, there must be another source that contributed to the major volume of our water on Earth. Let us investigate the possibility that Earth had a water-ice ring in its orbit during the evolution of our protoplanetary disk.
When our planets were formed, they each had rings around their equator. The rings of the planets that were outside the Roche limit formed moons but those within the limit either remained or disappeared.6 The outside planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune still have their rings. The rings of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars vanished.7
To explain this phenomenon, scientists believe that during the evolution of our solar system the orbits of the outside planets were always outside the ice, or snow, or frost line while the orbits of the inner planets were within.8 As a result, water-ice rings were formed and remained around the outside planets, but the rings that were around the inner planets did not contain water-ice. The water would have boiled and evaporated due to the enormous heat of the Sun.
One wonders whether the ice line remained always outside the orbits of the inner planets or migrated inwards within their orbits during the evolution of our protoplanetary disk. If it did migrate to within the orbit of Earth, then it is possible for water-ice rings and chunks of ice to form around Mars and Earth since the protoplanetary disk could still be optically thick.
Until recently mathematical theories and computer simulations about our solar system were based only on our existing model. However, few of these theories were modified and new theories were formulated as a result of the discovery of all kinds of solar systems in space where giant exoplanets are orbiting at close proximity to their parent stars.9
One of the recent new theories is on protoplanetary disks which reveal the behavior of the ice line during the evolution of our solar system. The theory implies that the ice line should migrate inwards as the viscous dissipation decreases with time. This causes the accretion rate to drop and the disk to cool. Due to these conditions, the ice line can reach a distance well within Earth’s orbit [0.60 AU as calculated by S.S. Davis (2005)].10 However, the ice line migrates outward again as the temperature increases once the disk becomes optically thin [as confirmed by P. Garaud & D.N.C. Lin (2007)].10
According to this analysis, it is quite possible that Venus, Earth, and Mars had small amounts of water in their orbits as compared to the huge amount of water that exists in our solar system. The estimated total mass of our water is only 0.02% of the total mass of Earth. This volume of water can easily flood our planet in case the water-ice ring collapses towards Earth.
Assuming Earth had a water-ice ring, the question that follows is: why should it collapse?
As our protoplanetary disk becomes more and more optically thin, the ice line will migrate outwards and is pushed more and more away from the Sun due to its heat. When the ice line approaches the orbit of Earth, the water-ice ring that is facing the Sun will heat-up, boil, and evaporate. However, the evaporated water will conversely condense and re-accrete in the shadow of Earth forming huge chunks of ice and rocks. These chunks are unable to maintain their orbit around the Earth, because of their orbital angular momentum, leading to their collapse. Once the ice-line coincides with the orbit of Earth, the water-ice ring most probably would have completely disappeared. The major portion would have flooded Earth with water creating oceans, while the remaining portion would have been lost to space.
Scientists believe that our planet was bombarded by asteroids or meteorites between 4.0 and 3.8 billion years ago. This period is known as the “Late Heavy Bombardment or LHB”.11 It seems that the LHB did not leave any evidence on Earth. This is due to the dynamic activities of our plant in addition to the active erosion which insures that its surface is continually renewed. However, the LHB could very well be due to the bombardment of the chunks of ice and rocks that were formed from the collapsed water-ice ring. This reasoning is based on the fact that these chunks had the same D/H ratio and contained enough water to create our oceans.
We can thus predict that Earth received the major part of its water from the ring that was in its orbit during a short period of time. Studies of the D/H ratio of the water in our oceans to the waters found in comets and other solar bodies did not match. In fact, ESA Herschel Space Observatory spent years searching for waters in space that are identical to the water on Earth. It discovered recently only one comet (103P/Hartley-2) containing water that is similar in composition to our oceanic waters.12 This is good news because it proves that the type of water on Earth exists in our solar system. Consequently, it is highly probable that the water-ice ring that was in Earth’s orbit had the same D/H ratio as our oceans.
In conclusion, the collapsed water-ice ring most probably flooded our planet with water 3.8 billion years ago. This means that the origin of the major part of our oceans is from one source and not from multi-sources.
ORIGIN OF OXYGEN IN EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE
Most scientists agree that there was no free oxygen in the original primitive atmosphere of early Earth (between 3.8 and 4.6 billion years ago) and that the original atmosphere, some believe, was composed of methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water.13 Other scientists, on the other hand, believe that as Earth began to develop a solid crust (about 4 billion years ago), gases from volcanic eruptions formed an atmosphere composed of elements similar to those present in volcanic emanations.14 These theories together suggest that Earth’s early atmosphere consisted of: water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), and other small amounts of miscellaneous gases.
It seems that free oxygen was produced on the Earth around 2.5 billion years ago. It was generated by photosynthesizing organisms known as cyanobacteria or blue-green algae. These tiny organisms conduct photosynthesis by using ordinary sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and oxygen. Since these organisms lived in oceans, the oxygen molecules they produced bubbled up from the oceans into the atmosphere. The presence of oxygen changed the composition of the early atmosphere into the present oxidizing atmosphere consisting of: nitrogen (N2 -78%), oxygen (O2– 21%), and other gases such as water and carbon dioxide.15
However, recent research revealed that oxygen existed in abundance in the atmosphere of planet Earth much earlier in time about 3.46 billion years ago. “An article was published in Nature Geoscience, suggests that oxygen was present in the atmosphere as early as 3.46 billion years ago. This latest research was jointly supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Kagoshima University, University of Tokyo and the Department of Geosciences, and the Pennsylvania State University. Masamichi Hoashi and his co-workers looked at the hematite-rich chert (chert is a brittle sedimentary rock) obtained from the deep drill core in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. Hematite is produced through oxidation process, so dating ancient sources of hematite can be used to discover when oxygen was present on Earth”.16
Another article that appeared in New Scientist (issue 2905, published 23 February 2013) suggests that oxygen was present in Earth’s atmosphere as early as 3.8 billion years: “The oldest sedimentary rocks date back 3.8 billion years and have puzzling deposits of oxides”.2
There seems to be a problem here! Blue-green algae were producing oxygen in oceans 2.5 billon years ago, but recent research revealed that oxygen existed in abundance on Earth about 1.3 billion years earlier. In the absence of blue-green algae that early in time, what then did produce this oxygen?
Returning to the theory that Earth had a water-ice ring around it could answer this problem. When the water-ice ring collapsed and entered the early atmosphere of the Earth, a large percentage of its water-ice evaporated due to friction. Since the ring contained at least 1.386x1018 tons of water, a large part of the atmosphere became completely saturated with water vapor extending from the surface of the Earth to very high levels in the atmosphere. Water molecules and dust particles from volcanic eruptions formed enormous electrically charged clouds over the Earth’s surface. As a result, lightening with immense intensity dominated the skies of our planet. These new conditions paved the way for the production of oxygen and ozone by the following two methods:
PHOTOCHEMICAL DISSOCIATION17
The photochemical dissociation hypothesis indicates that ozone is produced in the upper atmosphere through photochemical reactions involving UV radiation and water:
2H2O + UV radiation = 2H2 + O2 and
2O2 + UV radiation = O3 + O and
O + O2 = O3
This means that an ozone layer and oxygen were formed in the upper levels of the atmosphere. The ozone layer shielded the ultraviolet light and reduced its harmful effects on living forms.
ELECTROLYTIC OXYGEN AND OZONE GENERATION
Together, the highly charged clouds and the surface of Earth acted as a gigantic electrolytic oxygen and ozone generator. The discharge of electrons (during lightening, between the charged clouds and Earth’s surface) dissociated water molecules and produced hydrogen, oxygen, and ozone. It is to be noted that ozone is created in nature by lightning and can be smelled after a storm.18 The newly formed ozone ascended to the upper levels of the atmosphere and joined in the formation of the ozone shield. While the newly formed free oxygen combined with the gases of the original primitive atmosphere to form an intermediate atmosphere about 3.8 billion years ago. For example:
1. Oxygen combined with methane to produce carbon dioxide and water: (CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O)
2. Oxygen combined with ammonia to produce nitrogen and water: (4NH3 + 3O2 = 2N2 + 6H2O)
3. Hydrogen combined with oxygen to form water: (2H2 + O2 = 2H2O)
The newly formed intermediate atmosphere consisted mainly of: nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, water, and small amount of oxygen. A large percentage of the oxygen that was generated formed the ozone layer and combined with the gases of the early atmosphere.
In conclusion, the collapsed water-ice ring produced an oxygen enriched atmosphere and an ozone shield 3.8 billion years ago on our planet.
