The mantle of life

 The last post referred to dust around a new planetary system and the development of life. This post relates to the wider issue of life throughout the universe.

Bahá’u’lláh said the following:

“All-praise and glory be to God Who, through the power of His might, hath delivered His creation from the nakedness of nonexistence, and clothed it with the mantle of life.”
Gleanings p77-78

And in the longer morning prayer:

“Keep us safe, then, through Thine unfailing protection, O Thou the Beloved of the entire creation and the Desire of the whole universe…”

So an article in “Universe Today” caught my interest when it reported the discovery of a complex ring-shaped sulfur-bearing molecule (thiepine) apparently being formed in interstellar space far from any star.

This molecule is another which is believed to be important in the origin of life. It is a surprise to find that it can form in the cold of interstellar space!

The detailed article concludes with the comment:

“These and other findings indicate that the origins of life reside in space, and are far more plentiful than previously thought!”

Food for thought.

Dust

 In many religious texts it is stated that man was created from dust. In the Hidden Words Baha'u'llah wrote, for example:

"Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust?" HW Arabic 68

Recent research has now illuminated the role of dust in space in the formation of prebiotic organic compounds. This gives us another perspective on 'dust'. 

Prebiotic compounds are complex organic compounds  believed to be formed during an early stage of the development of life.

These compounds have been seen for the first time in space, in a protoplanetary disk. Such disks of dust surround young stars while planets are forming. See this article on "Universe Today". The article comments:

"This was the first time this sort of chemistry has been examined under these conditions, and it’s clear that without cosmic dust, the chemical reactions required for life would be too inefficient to form in great quantities."