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.

3 of 169 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

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.
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
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

--
wot no sig