Could Life Have Been Transferred From Mars To Earth? Laboratory And Computational Simulations Of Martian Ejecta
The study of the origin of life on Earth has been broadened due to panspermia models that suggest that early life may have been transferred between planets.
Mars likely once had conditions that could support life, and it is interesting therefore to consider the question of early interplanetary transfer of life from Mars to the Earth. Endospore forming bacteria are ideal candidates for these studies as they can withstand harsh environmental conditions. For this reason, the idea that early life could have been delivered to Earth on Martian ejecta in the late Hadean period has gained considerable interest.
To assess this, we have performed a series of both biological and astrophysical experiments. We exposed endospores shielded by a lysed colony of bacteria to extended UVC irradiation under a variety of rotation regimes, to simulate interplanetary exposure on ejecta with a variety of rotation periods.
We also performed detailed n-body simulations of particles ejected from Mars at both perihelion and aphelion, finding that Martian ejecta can reach the Earth on timescales of just a few years – suggesting that, with ejection at the ideal time, transfer could occur within one year. Taken together, this study suggests this interplanetary transfer of biologically viable material from Mars to Earth is plausible under favourable conditions.
Gregory M. Davis, Jonathan Horner, Bradley D. Carter, Stephen C Marsden
Comments: 11 pages, 2 tables, 2 figures, accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 24th Australian Space Research Conference, held in Melbourne, Australia, from 24th to 26th November, 2025
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2605.15595 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2605.15595v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.15595
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Submission history
From: Jonathan Horner
[v1] Fri, 15 May 2026 04:05:34 UTC (732 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15595
Astrobiology,
