In a recent article from Astrobiology magazine, they discussed testing the theory of panspermia, or the idea that life can naturally transfer between planets. The possibility that life was not created on Earth but from some other place in the universe is plausible through panspermia. It’s possible that meteorites of Mars rock could have carried small life forms when they made their journey to travel to Earth. But there are many questions that panspermia still has to answer. For example, would life forms survive a impact where they are ejected into space? Could organisms survive the deep chill and radiation of space? Could they enter the Earth’s atmosphere and crash while remaining alive? New research helps to answer one of these questions.
It’s possible that meteorites might have brought life to our planet
The European Planetary Science Congress at UCL tested whether entry and impact is possible for simpler organisms by using frozen pieces of an algae called Nannochloropsis oculata. Dina Pasini did this to see if the conditions were possible for early life to survive if it had traveled through space. Pasini used a two-stage light gas gun to fire frozen pellets of the Nannochloropsis into water in order to see if it could survive. She found that even at 6.93 km/s, which is similar to the impact velocity of a meteorite hitting a planet, a small percent survived. This leaves open the possibility that panspermia might actually be true.
The surface of Mars, and a potential starting point of life in the universe
So what if Panspermia is true? What would the implications of this be? Could life as we know have started not on Earth, but on a different planet? Maybe even a different galaxy? It sounds like science fiction, but it could prove to be true. But with the surface of Mars so barren, and the idea of life elsewhere seeming unrealistic, how would we ever know? Time will tell in future observations and studies, but maybe we aren’t as alone in the galaxy as we might believe.
Image sources:
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1251399/thumbs/r-LIFE-ON-MARS-large570.jpg?7
