UniVerses

This is an image of the center of our galaxy taken by NASA's Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope.

Rhythms
 
Cicadas’ lazy sizzles mumble dreamily
and incandescence twists the sultry air.
Dust devils spin siliceous revelry.
Rocks pyrolize beneath the solar glare.
‘Tis fusion fuels the sun’s protean cauldrons
where nuclei merge to mutate elements,
ejecting excess energy as photons
which drench us in igneous radiance.
But whence was forged our planet’s interior?
the alchemy of sol can make but air.
Some huge primeval nova spewed its core.
A gravid psychle spawned our earthenware.
We mine the bones of ancient, giant stars.
We’re naught but stardust, cosmic avatars.

Thus far we have cast our eyes outward, toward space, but we are of and bound to earth, wherever our minds might roam.
From distant time a giant star’s death throes created the elements which make life possible and fragments fell into orbit around our sun as it formed from the convulsion. Once earth cooled enough, an atmosphere formed and Life became possible.

Life on Earth requires a very narrow range of temperature. Only a tiny sliver of the vast ranges possible provides conditions cool enough for electrons to condense into atoms, yet warm enough that atoms can string together into molecules: large, organic molecules.

Liquid water is an essential component for Life as we know it. This means an atmosphere is a prerequisite for organic life to maintain surface temperatures within the narrow range necessary to sustain the chemistry of life.

Water is a solvent for a lot of ions, and the presence of salts dissolved in water is a critical ingredient for Life’s emergence.
Another vital feature is a shield to deflect the constant bombardment of ionized particles from the Sun’s winds. These highly energized ions, such as produce the polar auroras would have devastating effects on the integrity of the molecules that make us, were they unobstructed by the Earth’s magnetic shield. Only planets that have an electromagnetic core can support organic life.

The chemistry of oxygen is vital, for Life is powered by a slow, restrained burn. Photons, shed as byproducts of fusion reactions in the sun, are caught and transformed into chemical energy on Earth. The food that fuels Life is derived from the dance of electrons that accompanies oxidation and reduction reactions: the transfer of electrons powered by the Sun. Molecules that oxidize lose electrons when they pass them on to others, which become reduced upon the transfer.

It took billions of years for this, our star fragment to free oxygen into the air that nurtures complex life forms. Prior to the release of oxygen, microbes were all that could survive because the oxygen was locked with other atoms in rocks, CO2 and water. It was not converted to free oxygen until living cells digested the molecules and released it.

As we think about the myriads of other planets that are being discovered almost daily, remember that only a fraction of them will be able to provide the conditions needed to support life. Unless there are other forms of life that can exist, totally different from that which we experience.

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