Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins

Re:Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins by JoeAltmaier on Sunday January 07, 2024 @11:53AM (#38902776)

I favor the idea that a planet with a moon in a slightly eccentric orbit (earth) you have oceans washing minerals over every grain of sand on every beach, depositing then washing away different concentrations of everything, wetting and drying and applying sunlight and shade, warming and cooling. A billion billion petri dishes over a billion years. Eventually bingo! organic molecules then life.

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Re:Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins by ninkendo on Sunday January 07, 2024 @12:37PM (#38903190)

I don’t even think it’s the eccentricity that does it, all it matters is that the earth isn’t tidally locked with the moon, that’s what gives you the tides: Earth is rotating faster than the moon orbits and so different parts of the earth face the moon within a day. It also helps that the moon is a significant fraction of the mass of the earth, which means its gravitational influence is significant to the oceans.

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Re:Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins by adolph on Sunday January 07, 2024 @01:38PM (#38903842)

Eccentricities also contribute to long duration cycles of tides. Instead of all the Petri dishes following a single cycle, there is also another dimension of longer cycle dishes.

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Re:Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins by cmrdporcupine on Sunday January 07, 2024 @07:16PM (#38906646)

over a billion years

The crazy thing is... it was maybe half that maybe even less. The earth is ~4.5 billion years old. There is perhaps-evidence of microbial life could be ~4.1 billion years old. More certainly, at ~3.7 billion.

The earth is life and life is earth.

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