Interstellar

Evolution and its time scale are fascinating. It is however hard to imagine the universe and put it the into perspective. We are too busy with everyday duties. But once in a while when I have enough time to just stop, do nothing, and let my thoughts wonder and imagine... some things fall into place.

I've been reading The Anthropic Cosmological Principle by John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler. It's been slow as I don't have it in an electronic form (nor as an audio book) and I don't bring it on my frequent trips. But maybe slow is good in this case as the book is very thought provoking. And it helps put things into perspective.

The key take away so far has been the 10 billion years period. This is what it seems to take for the universe to create life. From simple atoms to birth of stars to death of stars and supernovae (they are necessary in the process as some heavy elements can only be created through supernova explosions). Then through seeding newly born planets with the elements from supernovae, creation of organic compounds, the ascent of biology and then the evolution of life itself.

10 billion years. That is 10 thousand million years. Modern humans originated some 0.3 million years ago.

Last week NASA published the super electrifying results of the analysis of the 3I/ATLAS comet (the 3rd registered interstellar body that entered our Solar system). The unexpected visitor from the past turned out to have very unusual chemistry: deuterium (in place of the "regular" hydrogen) and carbon-13 (as opposed to more abundant carbon-12 in our environment). The research team estimates that 3I/ATLAS could have formed as long as 10 to 12 billion years ago. It was already 6-8 billion years old when the Solar system was born. And we could have almost touched this unbelievably ancient body.