Space might be more germ infested than a kindergarten classroom
... but worry not ET fans! There's another popular theory that suggests the rest of space may teem with microbes: Galactic panspermia. It was once quite controversial, but as scientists continue to improve their understanding of earth and space, they're starting to give more credit the idea.
"Studies have shown that microbes can survive the shock levels of being launched into space," said Charles Cockell, a microbiologist at the Open University. "And as more and more organisms are discovered under extreme conditions, it's become more plausible that things could survive in space for the time it takes to go from one planet to another."
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- abbym0308
- added this
- added August 06, 2008
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Panspermia has always made sense to me.
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Just imagine all of the foreign molecules we have sent into space. Have we contaminated the moon, mars, our atmosphere, et cetera? I wonder if, let's say, Mars just needed one key ingredient for "life". So now, Mars has to adapt to those few, new contaminants that we provided. Just like how Earth may have been "fertilized", we may be doing that to our space neighbors. These planets & moons have gone millions of years without anything "new", and all of a sudden, their surface is full of alien materials.
Space + Humans = Scary Scary Stuff
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looks like a sign saying no germophobes in space
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theory's, theory's, and more theory's.
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I think the germs are a lot smarter than us, they're survivors!!
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First, thanks for the article. I too think this is a theory that makes sense, and the science is proving it.
FYI Perchlorates, the "toxins" you mention found recently by the Phoenix lander.
"Finding perchlorates is neither good nor bad for life, but it does make us reassess how we think about life on Mars," said Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA)"
From the Phoenix U of A siteIn fact in Mars analogs here on Earth like the Atacoma desert, we find microbes that feed/digest perchlorates for energy.
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- _thejournalist_
- 5 months ago
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That does it! I'm adding galactic garbage to my diet!
Universal Immunity! That's the ticket!
(by the way, I just hated Panspermia's first album)
