The Cosmic Timeline of Heliophysics: A Declaration of Significance

Abstract

We heliophysicists hold certain truths to be self‐evident: That the planets orbiting most stars are endowed through their creation from primordial matter with a particular elemental composition; That this composition and their thermal environment depend upon and are derived from their orbital distance from the star; that the state of their matter is determined in part by their thermal equilibrium, which could be within a habitability zone. Further, planets within such a habitability zone may come to possess liquid water oceans, a gaseous humid atmosphere, and primordial matter of a composition that enables the formation of complex aperiodic molecules capable of storing information and replicating. Such replicating molecules will be subject to randomly induced variations with differential reproductive success, forming the basis for natural selection and evolution of still more complex molecules and assemblages thereof.