The Panspermia hypothesis posits that either life's building blocks (molecular Panspermia) or life itself (organism-based Panspermia) may have been interplanetarily transferred to facilitate the origins of life (OoL) on a given planet, complementing several current OoL frameworks. Although many spaceflight experiments were performed in the past to test for potential terrestrial organisms as Panspermia seeds, it is uncertain whether such organisms will likely "seed" a new planet even if they are able to survive spaceflight. Therefore, rather than using organisms, using abiotic chemicals as seeds has been proposed as part of the molecular Panspermia hypothesis. Here, as an extension of this hypothesis, we introduce and review the plausibility of a polymeric material-based Panspermia seed (M-BPS) as a theoretical concept, where the type of polymeric material that can function as a M-BPS must be able to: (1) survive spaceflight and (2) "function", i.e., contingently drive chemical evolution toward some form of abiogenesis once arriving on a foreign planet. We use polymeric gels as a model example of a potential M-BPS. Polymeric gels that can be prebiotically synthesized on one planet (such as polyester gels) could be transferred to another planet via meteoritic transfer, where upon landing on a liquid bearing planet, can assemble into structures containing cellular-like characteristics and functionalities. Such features presupposed that these gels can assemble into compartments through phase separation to accomplish relevant functions such as encapsulation of primitive metabolic, genetic and catalytic materials, exchange of these materials, motion, coalescence, and evolution. All of these functions can result in the gels' capability to alter local geochemical niches on other planets, thereby allowing chemical evolution to lead to OoL events.
The sun generates light and heat for life on Earth to flourish. However, during the late Hadean-early Archean epoch on Earth, the "faint young sun" (FYS) was less luminous, influencing prebiotic chemistry and, by extension, the origins of life (OoL). However, higher levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the FYS, especially UV-C, due to the lack of an ozone layer, would likely have impacted the assembly, stability, persistence, and functions of prebiotic cellular precursors, i.e., protocells. Consequently, it is essential to study how such UV-C radiation would have affected the synthesis and stability of prebiotically relevant molecules and protocells to better understand the plausibility of the OoL during the FYS period. In this letter, we introduce unanswered questions surrounding the structure and stability of protocells under UV-C radiation. Such a perspective may be vital to exoplanetary systems orbiting other stars, enhancing our understanding of life's potential beyond our solar system.