I want to ROCK (or not)
One variation of the panspermia idea, lithopanspermia theory, suggests microbes may hide within the rocky confines of asteroids, protected from the often-damaging effects of radiation.
One of the great questions of Panspermia is this — once life develops on one planet, how does it travel to another world? Meteorite impacts could, occasionally, lift life-laden rocks into space. Some material from other worlds, including Mars, has been known to land on our own world.
The ALH84001 asteroid showed significant signs of shaping by living organisms. Image credit: NASA.
In 1996, news agencies around the world ran stories of an announcement of a possible sign of ancient Martian life in the asteroid Allan Hills 84001, a piece of Mars which crashed into Earth 13,000 years ago, following a 17-million-year-long journey. This evidence for alien life was later found to be inconclusive.
This new study shows that even without shielding from rocks, microorganisms may be protected from radiation and wild swings in temperature by huddling into balls. This idea — massapanspermia — could explain how the microorganisms could survive in space without needing to be shielded by layers of rock.
Life is resilient, and is found in even the most extreme conditions on Earth. Recent studies suggest that radiation may even play a part in supporting life processes, perhaps making life more likely than we thought in the subsurface of Mars and other worlds.
This study might also provide a new look at our own world, showing how life may have developed right here on Earth.
This article was originally published on The Cosmic Companion by James Maynard, founder and publisher of The Cosmic Companion. He is a New England native turned desert rat in Tucson, where he lives with his lovely wife, Nicole, and Max the Cat. You can read this original piece here.
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