

Eureka First Life In The Universe - joshbaptiste
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/02/04/271093289/eureka-first-life-in-the-universe

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pixl97
The chances any 'complex' life came to form in the early universe are vastly
improbable. First, there were no heavy elements yet. They are formed in the
cores of exploding stars (Metallicity). We know from our studies in to the
ancient universe that early stars are metal poor.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallicity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallicity)

Hammering that fact in that the first stars are not though to have formed for
100 Million years after the big bang, at which time the CMB would be rather
cool.

[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-first-stars-
in...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-first-stars-in-the-un/)

After this point things get kind of hazy as there are still many questions
about early galaxy formation and dark matter interactions. That said it is
likely that star formation was occurring in dense clouds of hydrogen gas like
we see today. Most of the star formation areas would be dominated by huge
stars with short lifespans, ending in short violent lives. While seeding the
galaxy with the building blocks for future life, the amount of these
catastrophes would make survival very difficult in the glow of gamma
radiation. Very little is known about the long term stability of these
galaxies either.

[http://sciencenordic.com/collisions-made-early-galaxies-
grow...](http://sciencenordic.com/collisions-made-early-galaxies-grow-huge)

~~~
gus_massa
(I’m internally classifying this idea as interesting but extremely
implausible. Neverhteles, just a technical question.)

How long was the period between the 100°C (212°F) and 0°C (32°F)? Or to be
generous between 200°C (392°F) and -100°C (-148°F)?

~~~
pixl97
In the first 380,000 years it expanded 1000 times its size and dropped to
4000K, much too hot for life. Reionization occurred from 150M to 1B years
after the big bang, by the time that was done the universe was around 50K
(-233C). During reionization it is likely the universe would have had too much
ionizing radiation for life.

