Astrovirology: Could Space-borne Viruses Exist?
Channel: Astro Biological
Date: 2018-09-15

The very first life is thought to have appeared on Earth up to four billion years ago, possibly only a few hundred million years after the formation of the planet. 

#Astrobiology #Exoplanets #Astrovirology #biosignatures 


What is beginning to interest some astrobiologists about viruses is the possibility they may exist in space. 
Researchers have observed a phenomenon known as self assembly in regards to viral particles. Virions have been observed forming via the simple interactions between molecules as they stick or repel to each other. The genetic material attains it's capsid shell when certain proteins spontaneously group and assemble themselves around it. 
This tendency of structures and objects to self organise and assemble in the natural world appears all around us, and it is this that lends weight to the notion that things like proteins, DNA and yes, possibly viruses could form in space, and contribute to the appearance of life elsewhere. After all, self assembly is responsible for the appearance of our Solar System, as the process of accretion led to the sun and planets coalescing from a vast cloud of interstellar gas and dust. 
Now, on Earth, we have a little thing called gravity, which has acted upon every single living thing on this planet. Who can say what forms space borne viruses could take under differing gravities, or no gravity at all? It's an interesting thing to think about. Give me your thoughts on that in the comments. 
Anyway, viruses are a realistic prospect as a bioindicator. Whilst it may not be possible to detect them from here on Earth, should a probe ever visit an exoplanet or pass through a region of space rich in organic molecules, detecting the presence of more complex life could be as easy as sampling a teaspoon of water. Since viruses cannot reproduce outside of more complex cells, finding them would be a sure sign that higher life exists.
It's definitely worth exploring. 
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Music: The Great Unknown

Music by Audionatix.com

Animation: NASA's Goddard Spacer Flight Centre
Conceptual Image Lab

Stock Video and Images: Pixabay

Further Reading and Resources:

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/26/8B/016/meta

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4382372/

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/60/11/879/328810

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1594570/


http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/01/the-hunt-for-viruses-in-space

http://astrobiology.com/2018/03/most-viruses-and-bacteria-fall-from-the-sky.html

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/viruses-et-and-the-octopus-from-space-the-return-of-panspermia

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/07/25/was-this-ancient-organism-the-first-life-on-earth-or-just-the-luckiest/

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-computational-foundation-of-life-20170126/

A very interesting read:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122/


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