Life may have originated on hard, carbon planets rather than on structures that resemble our own Earth, a new Harvard University study has found.
Carbon planets, made up of graphite and diamond, may have been the "first potentially habitable worlds to form" in our universe.
"The work shows that even stars with a tiny fraction of the carbon in our solar system can host planets," said lead author Natalie Mashian.
The findings could bolster the belief alien life exists somewhere in the universe.
"We have good reason to believe alien life will be carbon-based, like life on Earth, so this also bodes well for the possibility of life in the early universe," Mashian said.
The Harvard team conducted their research by examining carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars. These stars contain "only one hundred-thousandth as much iron as our Sun", which means they formed before the universe was full of "heavy elements".
"These stars are fossils from the young universe," added Mashian. "By studying them, we can look at how planets, and possibly life in the universe, got started."
The planets formed around the CEMP stars are hard to differentiate from worlds that resemble Earth, however, so further efforts need to be undertaken to identify them, the team says.
"We need a practical method for finding out how early planets may have formed in the infant universe," they wrote.
"We'll never know if they exist unless we look."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
