Universe 13.7 billion years, Earth 5 billion, Life 4?

Question

I was thinking about how old we must be in comparison to other bastions of life in the universe.

The first stars formed, died, and released heavier elements necessary for life into the universe. Once the next series of star births came around, life became a possibility (certanty with the size of the universe). So my question is. How Early could life have started? I mean when did the first main sequence stars all die off and allow for the next main sequence stars to have the possibility for life (I only what information pertaining to main sequence stars because they make up most star matter and are therefore the most pertinent)? Is Earth probably one of the first sets of worlds with life or have other planets filled with life probably come and gone with their stars?

Answer 1

Its unlikely that there are other worlds with life significantly older than our own.  The building blocks have to be available.  Life started on Earth rather quickly.  The crust had cooled and the oceans formed and viola!! life shows up.  How?  Who knows?  After that it remained single celled, virtually unchanged for 3 billion years.  Then Eukaryote cells somehow developed, possibly due to the influence of two snowball earth events. If these events were necessary, each was d**n near 100% fatal.  If complex life requires such a stimulus, complex life in the universe may be rare indeed.

Answer 2

well the theory is that there are other planets with life by distant stars. its not probable that earth is the only planet with life on it. humans have been living on earth for a couple thousand years actually. life in general it goes in the millions such as microscopic bacteria and such. when stars implode or create a supernova they destroy anything close to them either by black hole (theoretical) or a the supernova burns them up.

Answer 3

The first stars where almost entirely hydrogen.  They are thought to have been very big, and exploded quickly.  This puts heavier elements into the surrounding gas.  If other big stars form from this, become big and explode soon, stars like the Sun could form pretty soon.  The earliest estimate i've heard is about 1 billion years after the Big Bang.  Assuming another 5 billion years for intelligent life to develop, it seems it could have happened at about 6 billion years after the Big Bang.  That's about 8 billion years ago.  If this is true, there could be some really advanced entities out there.

I've heard longer estimates suggesting that we're probably the first wave.  Different assumptions, but i don't know the details.

I personally doubt we're first.

Answer 4

Without looking it up, I remember that the first Main sequence stars were HUGE! The bigger the star the faster they burn, So I believe that once they formed and fusion began, those early big boys were a flash in the pan......maybe a few million to 10 million years. They would have hyper-nova'd at that point and blasted out all those nice ingredients to make "us". The rest is history.