Chicxulub Impact Might Have Spread Life-Bearing Rocks Through the Solar System

KentuckyFC writes "Some 65 million years ago, an asteroid the size of a small city hit the Yucatan Peninsula in what is now Mexico, devastating Earth and triggering the sequence of events that wiped out the dinosaurs. This impact ejected 70 billion kg of Earth rock into space. To carry life around the Solar System, astrobiologists say these rocks must have stayed cool, less than 100 degrees C, and must also be big, more than 3 metres in diameter to protect organisms from radiation in space. Now they have calculated that 20,000 kilograms of this Earth ejecta must have reached Europa, including at least one or two potentially life-bearing rocks. And they say similar amounts must have reached other water-rich moons such as Callisto and Titan. Their conclusion is that if we find life on the moons around Saturn and Jupiter, it could well date from the time of the dinosaurs (or indeed from other similar impacts)."

Comments

And Vise-Versa

[Press2ToContinue]

A nice example of panspermia.

Re:And Vise-Versa

[TapeCutter]

There are those who believe...

*The emperor rises to his full height slapping his testicles together in applause*

Bravo Court Jester, another wonderfully funny and politically astute show. Your best show yet - if I may be so bold as to critique your art.

*For the first time during the evening, the audience is silent, you can hear the tension in the air but nobody dares so much as a whisper*

Let it be known to my court, there are some in the empire who take their sci-fi too literally and talk of the solar system as a real place where Europeans - or whatever they're called - exist.
We must all take care not to confuse reality and fantasy in our daily conversations because such talk without the sharp comedic wit of a professional artist is a threat to our very survival. As we know it promotes the heinous crime of irrational thinking when it's is plain for all to see that there is nothing beyond the celestial ice dome but more celestial ice dome. What is it about "ice all the way up" that is so hard for some in my court to comprehend? Well I believe Octopus' razor tells the court that nobody is that reallystupid, the best mathematicians of the court are all convinced the stories are a sophisticated code for subversive activities of the court's enemies. They must be stopped or they will rip the court asunder!

*Set to sinister music* - The emperor slowly withdraws back into his emerald green exoskeleton until only his four eyestalks are visible to the audience, all the while taking mental notes on those who are not enthusiastically applauding his own politically pointed performance.

seems extremely unlikely

[epyT-R]

At the point of impact, aren't we're talking millions of degrees of heat energy? Wouldn't this sterilize anything ejected from the planet?. This whole premise sounds more like a bad scifi movie than a real hypothesis.

Re:Would not survive

[SJHillman]

Fun fact: Evidence suggests that life was around on Earth for some 200 million years before photosynthesis; Even after the evolution of photosynthesis, it would have likely taken millions more years for it to change the atmosphere in any way detectable to visitors... nevermind distant observers. Although its presence may be a telltale sign of life, the absence of it shouldn't be taken as evidence of no life.

Re: incorrect!

[Runaway1956]

Good question. One which few people will even touch. Fact is - there is no such restriction. If a God or gods meddled in life here, they had all the same reasons to plant life hundreds, thousands, millions, or quintillions more times around the universe. One of the crazier stories I read in my youth had God and Satan taking turns designing newer and better planets. On this planet, God is the creator, on the next planet, Lucifer is the creator and God is the antagonist.