Related papers: Cosmic ray-driven bioenergetics for Life in Molecu…
The chiral puzzle of biological molecules is thought to be closely related to the origin of life and is still a mystery so far. Previously, we proposed a new model on the origin of life, Nebula-Relay hypothesis, which assumed that the life…
According to panspermia, life on Earth may have originated from life forms transported through space from elsewhere. These life forms could have passed through molecular clouds, where the process of methanogenesis could have provided enough…
A modified version of panspermia theory, named Nebula-Relay hypothesis or local panspermia, is introduced to explain the origin of life on Earth. Primitive life, acting as the seeds of life on Earth, originated at pre-solar epoch through…
Cosmic rays are the main agents in controlling the chemical evolution and setting the ambipolar diffusion time of a molecular cloud. We summarise the processes causing the energy degradation of cosmic rays due to their interaction with…
Astronomically, there are viable mechanisms for distributing organic material throughout the Milky Way. Biologically, the destructive effects of ultraviolet light and cosmic rays means that the majority of organisms arrive broken and dead…
The transformation of organic molecules into the simplest self-replicating living system,a microorganism, is accomplished from a unique event or rare events that occurred early in the Universe. The subsequent dispersal on cosmic scales and…
High-redshift primordial galaxies have recently been found with evolved stellar populations and complex star-formation histories reaching back to 250 Myr after the Big Bang. Their intense bursts of star-formation appear to be interspersed…
"The investigation into the possible effects of cosmic rays on living organisms will also offer great interest." - Victor F. Hess, Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1936 High-energy radiation bursts are commonplace in our Universe. From nearby…
Some astrobiological models suggest that molecular clouds may serve as habitats for extraterrestrial life. This study reviews recent theoretical work addressing the physical and biochemical prerequisites for life in such environments, with…
A series of astronomical observations obtained over the period 1986 to 2018 supports the idea that life is a cosmic rather than a purely terrestrial or planetary phenomenon. These include (1) the detection of biologically relevant molecules…
Low energy cosmic rays (up to the GeV energy domain) play a crucial role in the physics and chemistry of the densest phase of the interstellar medium. Unlike interstellar ionising radiation, they can penetrate large column densities of gas,…
Galaxies at high redshifts with strong star formation are sources of high-energy cosmic rays. These cosmic rays interact with the baryon and radiation fields of the galactic environment via photo-pair, photo-pion and proton-proton processes…
In this review, we first reassess the supernova remnant paradigm for the origin of galactic cosmic rays in the light of recent cosmic-ray data acquired by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. We then describe the theory of light element…
Cosmic rays are charged relativistic particles that reach the Earth with extremely high energies, providing striking evidence of the existence of effective accelerators in the Universe. Below an energy around $\sim 10^{17}$ eV cosmic rays…
Low-energy cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal and dynamical evolution. The purpose of this work is to explore the possibility that a low-energy component of…
Cosmic rays fill up the entire volume of galaxies, providing an important source of heating and ionisation of the interstellar medium, and may play a significant role in the regulation of star formation and galactic evolution. Diffuse…
Cosmic ray nuclei, cosmic ray electrons with energy above a few GeV, and the diffuse gamma-ray background radiation (GBR) above a few MeV, presumed to be extragalactic, could all have their origin or residence in our galaxy and its halo.…
Accelerated particles are ubiquitous in the Cosmos and play a fundamental role in many processes governing the evolution of the Universe at all scales, from the sub-AU ones relevant for the formation and evolution of stars and planets to…
Cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular and diffuse clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal, and dynamical evolution. The amount of cosmic rays inside a cloud also determines the $\gamma$-ray flux produced by…
The cosmic reionization of hydrogen was the last major phase transition in the evolution of the universe, which drastically changed the ionization and thermal conditions in the cosmic gas. To the best of our knowledge today, this process…