National Academy of Sciences study conclusion: Simple Life Forms are Common throughout Universe

A detailed analysis of 3.465-billion-year-old microbial microfossils is now providing strong evidence supporting an increasingly understanding that life in the Universe is common. A new study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Teacher J. William Schopf from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his partners investigated 11 examples of 5 types of prokaryotic cell microfossils from the Apex Basalt Formation, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia.

Two of the five species the scientists examined were crude photosynthesizers, one was an Archaeal methane producer, and two others were methane consumers.

Perhaps your curious what a 3.465-billion-year-old fossil microorganism looks like?

Here's precisely that: A 3.465-billion-year-old fossil microorganism from Western Australia. Image: J. William Schopf / Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life, University of California, Los Angeles.

"The proof that a robust gathering of creatures had just developed greatly ahead of schedule in the Earth's history reinforces the case on this existing somewhere else in the Universe since it would be to a great degree improbable that life shaped rapidly on Earth yet did not emerge anyplace else"

“While the study strongly suggests the presence of primitive life forms throughout the Universe, the presence of more advanced life is very possible but less certain,” from Professor Schopf.

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