Evidence For Comet-Borne Microfossils Supports Panspermia

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Evidence For Comet-Borne Microfossils Supports Panspermia

Posted by timothy on Tuesday March 12, 2013 @03:43AM from the aliens-always-start-small dept.

New submitter onyxruby writes "On December 29th of last year a comet exploded over Sri Lanka. When examined by Cardiff University one of the comet samples was found to contain micro-fossils akin to plankton. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center tested additional samples with similar results. The research paper was published in the Journal of Cosmology. In practice this means that the argument that life did not start on Earth has gained additional evidence." Update: 03/12 16:59 GMT by S : On the other hand, Phil Plait says the paper is very flawed; the sample rocks the researchers tested may not even be meteorites.

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Re:What If? by durrr · 2013-03-12 03:48 · Score: 5, Informative

Nah, it's a freshwater contaminated sample, the diatoms found are not fossilized and they are all existing species. Go read the Bad Astronomy blog for details.
BA link by Scareduck · 2013-03-12 03:50 · Score: 4, Informative

Here. Interesting stuff.

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Dog is my co-pilot.
1. Re:BA link by nametaken · 2013-03-12 05:33 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I can't help but laugh at the differences.
  Slashdot-linked Register article...
  
  Earth bombarded by interplanetary SLIME MONSTERS
  We are not alone' is the message of Invasion of the Hystrichospheres
  Invaders from an unknown planet entered Earth's atmosphere on December 29 last year, riding in a fiery comet that burst 10km above Sri Lanka.
  Compared with Phil's article...
  
  UPDATE: No, Life Has Still Not Been Found in a Meteorite
  Oh boy. Here we go again, again.
  In January, I wrote about Chandra Wickramasinghe, who claimed he had found fossilized diatoms (microscopic plant life) in a meteorite. I showed pretty carefully why this claim is very wrong, but apparently it wasn't enough: A new paper from Wickramasinghe's team has been published furthering the claims, and it's getting picked up by mainstream media.
  I read the paper, and really it's more of the same as from the first paper. In some ways, it's even shakier;
Phil Plait says no... by janeuner · 2013-03-12 03:51 · Score: 5, Informative

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/11/meteorite_life_claims_of_fossils_in_a_meteorite_are_still_wrong.html
Because it's wrong? by slashmojo · 2013-03-12 03:51 · Score: 4, Informative

According to this..
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/11/meteorite_life_claims_of_fossils_in_a_meteorite_are_still_wrong.html
Re:Why is this not an even bigger story? by Black+Parrot · 2013-03-12 03:56 · Score: 4, Insightful

Wickramasinghe has been "proving" panspermia for decades. This isn't any bigger a story than the last dozen times.
He once claimed that influenza was from space because it struck everywhere simultaneously - a patently false claim. You can learn more than he knows about it on Wikipedia.
He should give it up and go into creationism, where there's money to be had.

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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Re:"Panspermia" by Black+Parrot · 2013-03-12 03:59 · Score: 4, Funny

Isn't that something that mainly the Germans are into?
You're confusing Germans with satyrs.

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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Re:Why is this not an even bigger story? by arth1 · 2013-03-12 04:02 · Score: 4, Insightful

Because there is no proof, and not even any evidence for it.
It's been pretty thoroughly debunked, and at most it seems to be proof of Chandra Wickramasinghe's incompetence as a scientist, lackluster con man abilities, or both.
Oh, and certain slashdot editors accepting bad articles without spending two minutes on Google first.
Miller–Urey experiment by HaeMaker · 2013-03-12 04:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

Miller–Urey experiment created amino acids in the lab with lightning. This is the most likely source of life on earth. Not Mars, not comets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment
It's Junk Science by Maddog+Batty · 2013-03-12 04:13 · Score: 5, Informative

Bad Astronomer has done a good hatchet job on this story:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/11/meteorite_life_claims_of_fossils_in_a_meteorite_are_still_wrong.html

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wot no sig
Re:Why is this not an even bigger story? by ShanghaiBill · 2013-03-12 05:10 · Score: 4, Interesting

But despite that, he is still probably right.
No, he is almost certainly wrong. It is plausible that a rock containing live microorganisms could be ejected from a planet during an asteroid strike, drift to another planet within the same solar system, land, and survive. But it is implausible that this mechanism could spread life through interstellar space. To eject a rock fragment with enough force to completely escape a solar gravity well would melt it. Once it was ejected from the solar system, it would take eons to reach another star system. Once it reached another system, it would have an infinitesimal chance of hitting a life supporting planet. It would be far more likely to fall into the star, hit a gas giant, or just orbit for a few billion years. The chance of this happening, even once, in the lifetime of the universe, is remote. The chance of it happening repeatedly, in some sort of chain reaction, is as close to zero as anything can get.