An astronomer at Columbia University is suggesting that because life emerged so soon on Earth after its formation, it may emerge rapidly on Earth-like planets after the right conditions arise in general.
In his study published in the journal Astrobiology, David Kipping notes that because life began so soon after the formation of Earth and intelligent life took so long to evolve—just 1 billion years before the degradation of the sun will make life on Earth impossible—it seems reasonable to conclude that life begins soon after planet formation.
Prior research has strongly suggested that Earth finished forming approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Life may have appeared on Earth as far back as 4.2 billion years ago, suggesting it may have taken as little as 250 million years for life to arise once conditions were favorable. In his paper, Kipping notes that because the sun ages, it is likely to become unable to support life on Earth in as little as 900 million years.
Thus, if life had taken longer to get started on Earth, it may have been snuffed out before there was time for intelligent beings, such as humans, to evolve. He suggests this has major implications for the search for life on other planets—especially intelligent life.
If Earth can serve as proof that life can arise quickly once conditions are ripe, then it suggests the same could be true of life evolving on other Earth-like planets in much the same way. To back up this assumption, he notes that an updated Bayesian analysis of the data found the odds in favor of rapid abiogenesis on other planets to be 13 to 1, though that could change as estimates for when life first appeared on Earth change due to the arrival of new evidence. A 10:1 odds ratio is considered "strong evidence" for rapid abiogenesis.
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