The Origins of Life ?
March 11th 2011 09:33
Category: Cosmic Objects, Dodgy Science
Rock fragment : Image CarlCan
You would think that outer space being such a hostile environment would be devoid of any form of life.
The vacuum of space plus the myriads of radiation lethal cosmic and gamma rays would render space a sterile environment. If life forms can exist in the harshest condition here on Earth it is plausible that life in the form of bacteria or higher can exist in space.
What has prompted this blog is that an astrobiologist claims to have found evidence of extra terrestrial life in the form of fossilized bacteria called Cyanobacteria.
The bacteria is said to have been imbedded in a meteorite.
Some of you may recall a similar story some years ago. Scientist claimed to have evidence of ancient bacteria on a piece of Martian rock that landed on Earth called ALH84001.
CURRENT MOON
ALH84001, is believed to have once been a part of Mars and to contain fossil evidence that primitive life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago. There was no evidence to substantiate the claim that it did contain the remains of ancient bacteria.
Claims of this nature are hard to prove it is almost impossible to prove definitively that the structures being analyzed in the meteorite are fossilized life at all.
You cannot discount the probability that “life” could have penetrated the meteorite once it arrived on Earth and the bacteria may have entered the meteorite via natural process.
It is believed that the “bacteria” found on this particular sample of meteorite have similar characteristics found in other meteorites that belong to a specific group of that contain sulfur bacteria.
The researcher concludes these fossilized bacteria are not from Earth but are the fossilized remains of living organisms which lived in the parent bodies of these meteors, e.g. comets, moons, and other astral bodies.
The origins of life perhaps, these findings are yet to be proven one way or the other. Claims such as these will prove difficult to solve and I guess the controversy will continue for time to come.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
I believe that God created everything, but nobody knows how long one of His days might be.
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
Camera Sense
We just don’t know to any extent what type of creatures are in space if any.
An interesting footnote the only bacteria found on the Moon came form the Surveyor 3 Moon probe.
The streptococcus bacteria found in the camera that was returned to Earth on a later Apollo mission might not be the only interplanetary microbial hitchhiker to date.
Comment by James Rickard
unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish
Check this out...
I not ready to post it yet but scientists even found a fish, previously unknown, that's only 7.9 mm long!!!! On top of that, life has been found around volcanoes, and even in acid!!! considering all of that, micro-organisms from space don't seem that outlandish to me.
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
Camera Sense
You both make valid points, we are just not sure of what's really out there.