London, Dec 10 (ANI): A new research has suggested that life could have started in the universe 500 million years earlier than it did, but UV (Ultra Violet) radiation suppressed its formation.
Conducted by researchers at the University of Texas in Austin, US, the study indicates that the earliest galaxies probably consisted only of dark matter haloes, primordial hydrogen and helium gas. In fact, they could have supported the building blocks of life, such as carbon, oxygen, silicon and iron.
But a primary reason for the delay in the creation of life in the universe was the massive amounts of UV radiation at the time, which might have suppressed the formation of the very first stars.
This meant that the main elements that formulate lifes building blocks, could not be dispersed via stellar supernova explosions until much later.
Computer simulations made by the researchers also support the new theory.
According to these simulations, the earliest galaxies might have contained Population III stars, which were hundred times the mass of our Sun. These stars could have polluted galaxies with life-supporting supernova debris at least 500 million years earlier than current models predict.
“There is definitely a connection between star formation in the early universe and astrobiology,” Volker Bromm, one of the authors, told New Scientist magazine.
The team has submitted the paper to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. (ANI)