Alien Life Found On Earth?

Eris writes: "An interesting tidbit from a UPI story running on Environmental News Network: A Welsh/Indian team of scientists thinks that their high flying research balloon may have picked up actual alien bacteria dropped into the atmosphere by cometary debris. It remains to be seen whether this is any better than our old friend ALH 84001, the Martian Meteorite, and the researcher involved does have a history of pushing the life-from-outer-space theory. But this is just neat enough to merit at least a quick glance." So far, no Andromeda Strain reactions -- a good sign.

Comments

Re:Able to survive in space =/= Coming from space

[dbarclay10]

Every time you hear about these arguments, it seems the people claiming the bacteria are from space base their claim solely upon the observation that the bacteria could survive in outer space. This is a logical fallacy on more than one ground(induction, as opposed to the logically sound deduction for starters). Just because my computer could hurl through space and still be functional, does not mean it necessarily comes from space.

Yeah, but calculate the odds of your computer leaving the surface of the Earth, going around for a while, and landing on some other planet. Pretty bloody unlikely. Now, calculate the odds that all that would happen *naturally*, with no man-made forces at work. Yeah, damn near impossible now.

Okay, now visualize for a second microbes/organic material that can survive for millions, even billions of years encased in rock(if the organism is simple enough, and it's kept cold enough, it could last indefinetly). All of a sudden, it's very possible that at some time in the distant past, a primitive(or maybe not so primitive) planet/moon was struck by a large meteorite, throwing up huge clouds of dust, full of organic materials(and maybe even primitive life, that survived the blast). A comet passes through the cloud, and carries said organic material all through the solar system.

Calculate the odds on THAT. When you're dealing in time scales of billions of years, it's not so far fetched.

I don't think that the people who believe this is possible base their belief on the fact that bacteria can survive in space. I think it's much more than that. Personally, I don't know. I'll need hard evidence before I'm convinced. For instance, if a probe was built in absolutely sterile conditions(and I mean *absolutely* sterile conditions), and it came back with mold growth, then I'd start to wonder ... ;)

Speaking of probes, what about the Galileo probes? I'm sure they must have some form of Earth-life on them. If it ever falls to another planet, not only is it possible that life has travelled between planets, but it's fact.

Dave

'Round the firewall,
Out the modem,
Through the router,
Down the wire,