The habitable epoch of the early Universe

@article{Loeb2014TheHE,
  title={The habitable epoch of the early Universe},
  author={Abraham Loeb},
  journal={International Journal of Astrobiology},
  year={2014},
  volume={13},
  pages={337 - 339}
}
  • A. Loeb
  • Published 2014
  • Physics
  • International Journal of Astrobiology
Abstract In the redshift range 100≲(1+z)≲137, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) had a temperature of 273–373 K (0–100°C), allowing early rocky planets (if any existed) to have liquid water chemistry on their surface and be habitable, irrespective of their distance from a star. In the standard ΛCDM cosmology, the first star-forming halos within our Hubble volume started collapsing at these redshifts, allowing the chemistry of life to possibly begin when the Universe was merely 10–17 million… Expand
View on Cambridge Press
arxiv.org
31 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
12
Methods Citations
1

31 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Cosmic initial conditions for a habitable universe
Within the framework of an eternal inflationary scenario, a natural question regarding the production of eternal bubbles is the essential condition requires to have a universe capable of generating… Expand
On the Habitability of Our Universe
Is life most likely to emerge at the present cosmic time near a star like the Sun? We consider the habitability of the Universe throughout cosmic history, and conservatively restrict our attention to… Expand
The Degree of Fine-Tuning in our Universe -- and Others
(abridged) Both fundamental constants that describe the laws of physics and cosmological parameters that determine the cosmic properties must fall within a range of values in order for the universe… Expand
The Rise of the First Stars: Supersonic Streaming, Radiative Feedback, and 21-cm Cosmology
Understanding the formation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies represents one of the most exciting frontiers in astronomy. Since the universe was filled with hydrogen atoms at early times,… Expand
Chapter for the book Consolidation of Fine Tuning On the Habitability of Our Universe
Is life most likely to emerge at the present cosmic time near a star like the Sun? We consider the habitability of the Universe throughout cosmic history, and conservatively restrict our attention to… Expand
Relative Likelihood for Life as a Function of Cosmic Time
Is life most likely to emerge at the present cosmic time near a star like the Sun? We address this question by calculating the relative formation probability per unit time of habitable Earth-like… Expand
Observational Cosmology With Semi-Relativistic Stars
Galaxy mergers lead to the formation of massive black hole binaries which can accelerate background stars close to the speed of light. We estimate the comoving density of ejected stars with a… Expand
CEMP stars: possible hosts to carbon planets in the early universe
We explore the possibility of planet formation in the carbon-rich protoplanetary disks of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars, possible relics of the early Universe. The chemically anomalous… Expand
First Life in the Universe
Here, we ask a simple question, i.e. "at what cosmic time, at the earliest, did life first appear in the universe?" Given what we know about the universe today, there may be some partial answers to… Expand
Chapter 5 – The Birth of the Universe and Dark Energy
The theory of the birth of the Universe in the frame of nonlocal quantum hydrodynamics is considered. The transport equations for the physical vacuum (PV) are delivered. The calculations demonstrate… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 55 REFERENCES
The First Stars
Abstract The formation of the first generations of stars at redshifts z ≥ 15 − 20 signaled the transition from the simple initial state of the universe to one of ever increasing complexity. We here… Expand
21 cm cosmology in the 21 st century
Imaging the Universe during the first hundreds of millions of years remains one of the exciting challenges facing modern cosmology. Observations of the redshifted 21 cm line of atomic hydrogen offer… Expand
21 cm cosmology in the 21st century.
TLDR
This review detail the physics that governs the 21 cm signal and describe what might be learnt from upcoming observations, and generalize the discussion to intensity mapping of other atomic and molecular lines. Expand
How small were the first cosmological objects
The minimum mass that a virialized gas cloud must have in order to be able to cool in a Hubble time is computed, using a detailed treatment of the chemistry of molecular hydrogen. With a simple model… Expand
The first stars in the Universe
Large telescopes have allowed astronomers to observe galaxies that formed as early as 850 million years after the big bang. We predict when the first star that astronomers can observe (i.e. in our… Expand
An observational test for the anthropic origin of the cosmological constant
The existence of multiple regions of space beyond the observable Universe (within the so-called multiverse) where the vacuum energy density takes different values has been postulated as an… Expand
Cosmological Formation of Low-Mass Objects
We investigate the early formation of bound objects with masses comparable to the cosmological Jeans mass (10^5 solar masses). We follow the growth of isolated spherically symmetric density peaks… Expand
Habitable zones around main sequence stars.
TLDR
The results suggest that mid-to-early K stars should be considered along with G stars as optimal candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life. Expand
Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
This paper presents the first cosmological results based on Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and lensing-potential power spectra. We find that the Planck… Expand
Generic Spectrum and Ionization Efficiency of a Heavy Initial Mass Function for the First Stars
We calculate the generic spectral signature of an early population of massive stars at high redshifts. For metal-free stars with mass above 300 M☉, we find that the combined spectral luminosity per… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...