[USRA] Panspermia is the idea that life can originate on one planetary body and then be transferred to other bodies. Impacts are often the suggested method for transfer, as they can eject material containing microbial life into escape trajectories, which can then impact other bodies.
Our cartoon depiction of a meter-sized bolide’s journey into the Venusian atmosphere, where it will ablate, fragment, and eventually airburst, causing it to disperse in small particles that can remain lofted in the clouds and potentially disperse life.
Panspermia is perhaps most often discussed regarding the transfer of life between Earth and Mars (in both directions). Here we investigate the (relatively fraught) possibility of delivering Earth-life to the clouds of modern Venus. Regardless of its destination, organic material must survive its ejection and interplanetary transfer for panspermia to occur.
Life experiences several potential sources of trauma, including shock, heating, and radiation. However, past work has shown that all these obstacles are surmountable. Once reaching Venus, microorganisms must be dispersed in or above the clouds if they are to retain the possibility of survival.
Izenberg et al. (2021) presented the “Venus Life Equation” as a framework for calculating the probability of modern life as a product of three component probabilities: origination, robustness, and continuity.
Panspermia can increase the first term—origination, the probability that life started on Venus. We compute the fate of a bolide that enters Venus’s atmosphere, focusing on its ablation, explosion, and fragmentation into pieces that can float in the clouds.
Astrobiology,
