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Don't cue the theremins just yet ... These authors lay out a coherent case for self-replicating processes that might qualify as 'life' occurring within stars themselves.
As the authors admit, it depends quite a bit on how one defines 'life.' In this case it depends on how physicists choose to characterize 'life', and there's the potential rub ... Nonetheless, it's an interesting and quite mind-blowing concept they've developed.
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/physic...n-cosmic-strings-may-be-possible-inside-stars
As the authors admit, it depends quite a bit on how one defines 'life.' In this case it depends on how physicists choose to characterize 'life', and there's the potential rub ... Nonetheless, it's an interesting and quite mind-blowing concept they've developed.
A Strange Form of Life Could Flourish Deep Inside of Stars, Physicists Say
When searching for signs of life in the Universe, we tend to look for very specific things, based on what we know: a planet like Earth, in orbit around a star, and at a distance that allows liquid surface water. But there could, conceivably, be other forms of life out there that look like nothing that we have ever imagined before.
Just as we have extremophiles here on Earth - organisms that live in the most extreme and seemingly inhospitable environments the planet has to offer - so too could there be extremophiles out there in the wider Universe.
For instance, species that can form, evolve, and thrive in the interiors of stars. According to new research by physicists Luis Anchordoqui and Eugene Chudnovsky of The City University of New York, such a thing is indeed - hypothetically, at least - possible.
It all depends on how you define life. If the key criteria are the ability to encode information, and the ability for those information carriers to self-replicate faster than they disintegrate, then hypothetical monopole particles threaded on cosmic strings - cosmic necklaces - could form the basis of life inside stars, much like DNA and RNA form the basis of life on Earth.
"Information stored in the RNA (or DNA) encodes the mechanism of self-replication," Chudnovsky told ScienceAlert.
"Its emergence must have been preceded by the massive formation of random RNA sequences until a sequence was formed capable of self-replication. We believe that a similar process would occur with necklaces in a star, leading to a stationary process of self-replication." ...
What such a species would look like is a feast for the imagination. But we don't have to know what they look like to search for signs of their presence. Because such organisms would use some of the energy of their host star to survive and propagate, stars that seem to cool faster than stellar models can account for could be hosts for what the researchers call "nuclear life".
Several such stars have been observed, and their slightly accelerated cooling is still a mystery. Stars that dim erratically without explanation could be a good place to look, too - like EPIC 249706694. The researchers are careful to note that to link these stars to nuclear life would be an extremely long bow to draw. But there are interesting anomalies out there. And interesting possibilities too. ...
It's all extremely theoretical, but wild ideas can be a good way to make new discoveries. The researchers plan to continue their line of inquiry by developing simulations of cosmic necklaces in stars. It may not lead us to glittering star aliens - but even if it doesn't, it could give us a better understanding of cosmic strings and monopoles. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/physic...n-cosmic-strings-may-be-possible-inside-stars