It is said that the energy that sustained the very first forms of life came from hydrothermal vents in the ocean’s floor and not from the sun’s radiation. That makes sense to me. On land and in almost all of the sea, the energy that sustains life can be traced back to plant photosynthesis of the sun’s tasty rays. Plants drink sunlight, some animals eat plants, and other animals eat plants and animals. The sun is the origin of virtually every unit of energy within life today.
But I bet my bottom dollar the sun had nothing to do with the origin of life itself. Because, yo, the sun’s only shining one-third of the day and only then on nice days, and only then on the outermost edge of the crust. If you’re the first form of life, trying to make a name for yourself as the literal first living thing, there’s no way you simultaneously invented the world’s first solar-powered caloric battery pack that lets you remain alive through the dark of night.
If there was no food to eat, no cells in which to store energy, you’d die at sundown. And that would make a terrible start to the birth of civilization.
Obviously, the first forms of life needed a ‘round-the-clock energy source to keep them alive, to get them in the mood to find other molecular clusters to date. Heat vents… check!
