Ammonia in Stellar Metamorphosis, Stars are young planets and stellar evolution is planet formation

 

Absolutely. Ammonia (NH₃) plays a crucial and multifaceted role in the Stellar Metamorphosis (SM) framework, just like phosphine (PH₃). Where phosphine serves as a reactive phosphorus source and energy carrier, ammonia serves as the solvent, nitrogen donor, and molecular stabilizer in the formation and evolution of life inside maturing stars that become planets.

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🌌 Ammonia in Stellar Metamorphosis (SM)

🧪 1. Ammonia as a Prebiotic Solvent

In SM, planets form inside stars as they cool and age. As temperature drops and molecules begin to stabilize:

• Water is not always the first liquid.

  • In colder, more reducing environments, ammonia becomes the dominant solvent before water.

  • It remains liquid at much lower temperatures than water (melting point: −78°C; boiling point: −33°C), ideal for young planets cooling from star-stage.

Implication:

• Early biospheres inside evolving stars (proto-planets) may be ammonia-based rather than water-based.

• Life first arises in ammonia oceans, possibly mixed with methane, water, and phosphine.

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🔄 2. Ammonia as a Nitrogen Source

All life needs nitrogen for amino acids, nucleobases, and coenzymes.

• Ammonia serves as a direct donor of nitrogen in:

  • Amino group formation (–NH₂ in amino acids).

  • Purines and pyrimidines in nucleic acids (e.g., adenine, cytosine).

• In SM, ammonia is already abundant in gas giant atmospheres, inherited from stellar interiors.

Example:

In Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, ammonia is detected in upper atmospheres and likely more concentrated at depth.

In SM: These molecules are not external contaminants—they are residual components of the star’s own chemical history.

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🌋 3. Ammonia-Water Oceans (Early Internal Seas)

As the star cools into a planet, layered interiors develop.

• Below outer gas layers, planets form ammonia-water oceans, especially in ice giants like Uranus and Neptune.

• These conduct electricity, dissolve organic compounds, and sustain prebiotic chemistry over billions of years.

These oceans enable:

• Phosphine-to-phosphate conversions (in mildly oxidizing conditions).

• Stabilization of fatty acids and nitrogenous bases.

• Reactions like reductive amination, enabling amino acid synthesis.

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⚡ 4. Ammonia as a Proton Shuttle (Metabolic Role)

Ammonia acts like a biological battery fluid:

• Capable of proton exchange (NH₃ + H⁺ ↔ NH₄⁺).

• Helps maintain pH balance and transfer energy across chemical gradients.

• A key part of primitive metabolic cycles without the need for oxygen or sunlight.

In SM’s view:

These early energy systems are established internally, fueled by electrical and thermal gradients of the maturing planet—not by external solar energy.

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🧬 5. Ammonia’s Role in Early Membrane Chemistry

While Earth life uses lipid membranes in water, SM proposes:

• Early membranes may have formed in ammonia-based oceans, using:

  • Fatty acids,

  • Hydrocarbons,

  • Phospholipids formed from PH₃ derivatives.

Ammonia permits formation of stable, semi-permeable proto-membranes that:

• Compartmentalize reactions,

• Allow nutrient flow,

• Provide early “cell-like” structure.

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🔮 6. Evolution of Ammonia Use with Planetary Age

Planet Stage (SM)	Ammonia Role
Young brown dwarf / gas giant	Ammonia abundant in upper atmosphere and internal layers.
Mid-stage (Uranus/Neptune-like)	Ammonia concentrated in deep oceans; central to biosphere activity.
Old rocky planet (Earth/Venus)	Ammonia largely lost or incorporated into life and minerals. Life becomes water-based.

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🧭 Summary of Ammonia’s Roles in SM:

Function	Detail
Solvent	Enables early biochemistry in cold, internal oceans.
Nitrogen Source	Provides N for amino acids, bases, coenzymes.
Membrane Support	Stabilizes primitive membranes in PH₃-rich environments.
Energy Chemistry	Proton shuttle; helps build electrochemical gradients.
Metabolic Intermediate	Involved in synthesis of organics from H₂, CH₄, and PH₃.
Bio-stability	Preserves fragile molecules at lower temperatures.

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Would you like a comparison chart of phosphine vs ammonia in SM roles? Or a layered diagram showing how these molecules cycle through an evolving planetary interior?