Imagine that you have discovered a new organism on another
planet. Describe an experiment that you could do to determine if the
an organism is composed of cells.
Answers
Answer:
The Earth formed roughly 4.54.54, point, 5 billion years ago, and life probably began between 3.53.53, point, 5 and 3.93.93, point, 9 billion years ago.
The Oparin-Haldane hypothesis suggests that life arose gradually from inorganic molecules, with “building blocks” like amino acids forming first and then combining to make complex polymers.
The Miller-Urey experiment provided the first evidence that organic molecules needed for life could be formed from inorganic components.
Some scientists support the RNA world hypothesis, which suggests that the first life was self-replicating RNA. Others favor the metabolism-first hypothesis, placing metabolic networks before DNA or RNA.
Simple organic compounds might have come to early Earth on meteorites.
Introduction
If there were other life out there in the universe, how similar do you think it would it be to life on Earth? Would it use DNA as its genetic material, like you and me? Would it even be made up of cells?
We can only speculate about these questions, since we haven't yet found any life forms that hail from off of Earth. But we can think in a more informed way about whether life might exist on other planets (and under what conditions) by considering how life may have arisen right here on our own planet.