Imagine microscopic life-forms, such as bacteria, transported through space, and landing on another planet. The bacteria finding suitable conditions for its survival could then start multiplying again, sparking life at […]
Panspermia
Posted inPanspermia, Press Release
Transfer of Life by Earth-Grazing Objects to Exoplanetary Systems
Recently, a 30 cm object was discovered to graze the Earth’s atmosphere and shift into a Jupiter-crossing orbit. We use the related survey parameters to calibrate the total number of […]
Posted inPanspermia, Press Release
Exporting Terrestrial Life Out of the Solar System with Gravitational Slingshots of Earthgrazing Bodies
Exporting terrestrial life out of the Solar System requires a process that both embeds microbes in boulders and ejects those boulders out of the Solar System. We explore the possibility […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Impact events, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Press Release
Did Comet Impacts Jump-start Life On Earth?
Comets screaming through the atmosphere of early Earth at tens of thousands of miles per hour likely contained measurable amounts of protein-forming amino acids. Upon impact, these amino acids self-assembled […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Microbiology & Virology, Missions & Hardware, Panspermia, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Sample Return
Microbial Contamination: Sample Return from Mars Moons: Departure of Microbes From Mars’ Surface
Potential microbial contamination of Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, which can be brought about by transportation of Mars ejecta produced by meteoroid impacts on the Martian surface, has been comprehensively […]
Posted inPanspermia
Planet Seeding And Panspermia
The first detection of an interstellar asteroid/comet-like object visiting the solar system two years ago has sparked the ideas about the possibility of interstellar travel. New research from the Technion-Israel […]
Posted inPanspermia, Press Release
Planting Earth Life on Habitable but Sterile M-dwarf Oxygen Planets
Time is arguably the key limiting factor for interstellar exploration. At high speeds, flyby missions to nearby stars by laser propelled wafersats taking 50-100 years would be feasible. Directed energy […]
Posted inPanspermia, Press Release
Galactic Panspermia
We present an analytic model to estimate the total number of rocky or icy objects that could be captured by planetary systems within the Milky Way galaxy and result in […]
Posted inPanspermia, Press Release
Dynamical and Biological Panspermia Constraints Within Multi-planet Exosystems
As discoveries of multiple planets in the habitable zone of their parent star mount, developing analytical techniques to quantify extrasolar intra-system panspermia will become increasingly important. Here, we provide user-friendly […]
Posted inPanspermia, Press Release
Implications of Captured Interstellar Objects for Panspermia and Extraterrestrial Life
We estimate the capture rate of interstellar objects by means of three-body gravitational interactions. We apply this model to the Sun-Jupiter system and the Alpha Centauri A\B binary system, and […]