Tharumen Navaniswaran, Sithamparam Mahendran, Jia Tony Z, Chandru Kuhan
Space Science Center (ANGKASA), Institute of Climate Change, National University of Malaysia, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, 600 1St Ave, Floor 1, Seattle, WA 98104 USA.
Biophys Rev. 2024 Sep 26;16(5):651-654. doi: 10.1007/s12551-024-01223-4. eCollection 2024 Oct.
The sun generates light and heat for life on Earth to flourish. However, during the late Hadean-early Archean epoch on Earth, the "faint young sun" (FYS) was less luminous, influencing prebiotic chemistry and, by extension, the origins of life (OoL). However, higher levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the FYS, especially UV-C, due to the lack of an ozone layer, would likely have impacted the assembly, stability, persistence, and functions of prebiotic cellular precursors, i.e., protocells. Consequently, it is essential to study how such UV-C radiation would have affected the synthesis and stability of prebiotically relevant molecules and protocells to better understand the plausibility of the OoL during the FYS period. In this letter, we introduce unanswered questions surrounding the structure and stability of protocells under UV-C radiation. Such a perspective may be vital to exoplanetary systems orbiting other stars, enhancing our understanding of life's potential beyond our solar system.
太阳产生光和热，使地球上的生命得以繁荣。然而，在地球冥古宙晚期至太古宙早期，“黯淡太阳悖论”表明当时的太阳光度较低，这影响了前生物化学，进而影响了生命起源。然而，由于当时缺乏臭氧层，来自黯淡太阳的更高水平的紫外线辐射，尤其是紫外线C，可能会影响前生物细胞前体（即原细胞）的组装、稳定性、持久性和功能。因此，研究这种紫外线C辐射如何影响前生物相关分子和原细胞的合成与稳定性，对于更好地理解黯淡太阳时期生命起源的合理性至关重要。在这封信中，我们提出了关于紫外线C辐射下原细胞结构和稳定性的未解决问题。这样的观点对于围绕其他恒星运行的系外行星系统可能至关重要，有助于增强我们对太阳系之外生命可能性的理解。
