When we turn our gaze to the sky, among the many questions we raise in front of the infinity of stars and extent of the universe, we are naturally led to ask what is the origin and the reason for our presence down here. The answer to “why” will sometimes be the footprint of anthropocentrism, a naive but understandable feeling, that we will try nevertheless to get rid of.
As for the question of “how” life and thought have emerged, it is better to consider that God has nothing to do with it – except for the initial state – until it is demonstrated that the universe could have developed independently of any outside influence.
One can question the determinism of the world or the reality of the anthropic principle, but the theological problem will have no place in this scientific context. Since the total comprehension of the Universe is now beyond our understanding, we must address only the more limited problem: the origin of life and the possibilities of existence of another form of life in the universe in light of the latest discoveries.
Teams of researchers have sought to understand the mechanisms that govern the living world, but no one will tell you that he has succeeded in synthesizing even a single-celled being. Life is an assortment of chemical and physical conditions which in our case has arrived at such a stage of organizational complexity that one may wonder if a similar situation can occur somewhere in the universe. In any case, our generation will not know the answer. True astronomy has existed for less than half a century, what does it represent for the existence of the world? Very little …
Before detecting other signs of life in the universe, it is prudent to ask whether the process we have known on Earth can reproduce elsewhere in space.
We have seen in other pages of this site the scenarios that led to the formation of the solar system.
When observing the nebulosities surrounding stars close to the Orion nebula, the Eagle Nebula or the Tarentula, dark nodes are clearly discernible in the regions most convoluted by gravitational turbulence. Infrared images indicate that in the darkest areas, stars are being formed. Elsewhere in space, one discovers stars surrounded by discs of dust, their mass equivalent to several times that of the Earth; Located at 52 a.l. ß Pictoris is typical. Other stars and even some pulsars have an irregular course. This disturbance is usually caused by a nearby massive body, a planet or a dwarf star that moves the center of gravity of the couple and alters its trajectory.
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