Physicists: Ancient life might have escaped Earth and journeyed to alien stars

Jan 16, 2020
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An awful lot would have to go exactly right for what these guys are proposing to actually happen. Even if the first part, that microbes attached to a comet as it passed through Earth's atmosphere, had happened 1000 times over Earth's history, AND we assume that the microbes can survive indefinitely in the comet, I would still be extremely surprised if even a single one of those seeded comets ever crashed into a habitable planet over the remainder of the universe's lifetime. There are just way too many random factors.
 
Feb 1, 2020
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As we refine our 3-D copiers to create trachea's and urinary tracts, and as a species contemplate our future without the local Sun, it's easy for me to see us reducing life forms to their DNA and carting the whole shebang off to a new planet, and even easier to consider the fact that most mythology consists of some God magically producing life forms in "six something or others, like days or centuries or millennia" before He took a break, as very possibly not being the first time we did it.
We have come up, in the process of trying to annihilate each other, with war toys enough to put us in the catbird's seat, when it comes to arguing with Armageddon, which is exactly what we're doing now, only NASA isn't the headline grabber it might be. Without this questionable past, we could not even consider how to grapple with incoming balls of fire and ice from the beyond; so in my estimation, we are Mother Nature's Grunts, the Saviors here, bound -- by our swollen cerebrums and very fashionable thumbs-- to be the default creature to take on the task of saving, first the planet from incoming Space debris, and later to do just what the article suggests: first find a planet, next seed it with the appropriate microbes, seeds, critters, and finally when the Garden is done, ourselves. I'm just hoping they'll leave out the mosquitoes! The prophets were mostly astronomers and saw this coming.

This scenario makes the historically worst of us, the vengeful but creative warriors, from the first catapult to he atomic bomb, the actual Good Guys, in the Real Agenda, about which we have little to say, except that if we fail, nothing else much matters, the irony of which I find most fascinating. And if we succeed, when we knock that first asteroid off course, it will be an Aha! moment to outshine all others, as we look back at our seemingly reckless behavior and realize it was not our own doing, because we are on a Holy Mission to create "Life everlasting, Amen!"
 
Nov 21, 2019
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In this article, "bacteria hitching a ride into the galaxy aboard a comet" is included in a list of weird concepts that turned out to be true. Since when is a hypothesis the same thing as a true fact??
 
Jan 10, 2020
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Science fact is often stranger than science fiction so I have an open mind. My thoughts are that Panspermia between Earth and Mars was highly likely due to regular large meteor impacts early in both planets existence. Also many bacterial extremophiles are extremely hardy. To me the idea of DNA spreading around the galaxy in comets and leading to new life is harder to accept. In order for new cells to reproduce the basic cell would need to be preserved. We are talking hundreds of light years distance, millions of years in a high radiation free space environment. However as I have said, science fact is often stranger than science fiction.
 
Jan 20, 2020
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Science fact is often stranger than science fiction so I have an open mind. My thoughts are that Panspermia between Earth and Mars was highly likely due to regular large meteor impacts early in both planets existence. Also many bacterial extremophiles are extremely hardy. To me the idea of DNA spreading around the galaxy in comets and leading to new life is harder to accept. In order for new cells to reproduce the basic cell would need to be preserved. We are talking hundreds of light years distance, millions of years in a high radiation free space environment. However as I have said, science fact is often stranger than science fiction.


You need to examine deep earth bacteria, found up to 5 km below the surface at temperatures above that of boiling water, anaerobic bacteria that would survive both impact and space travel. Yes life leaves a planet with a large impact. This is how we know that Mars still has life and that Mars and Earth most certainly shared life. Until samples are returned to earth we call it theory or hypothesis just to be polite but most definitely the Earth and Mars have both received and have both sent life into and from space. We all know life is out there but to be polite to those that don't see this we call it a hypothesis.
 

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