Earth sows its seeds in space Life could be leaking out all over the cosmos. 23 February 2004
PHILIP BALL
The Earth could be scattering the seeds of life throughout our Galaxy. Microbes could ride on specks
of dust, powered by the Sun's rays, says William Napier, an astronomer at the Armagh Observatory in
Northern Ireland.
Scientists have pondered whether life might ride between star systems ever since the nineteenth
century. Some think that a collision between a life-bearing planet and another celestial body could
scatter stones and boulders into space carrying living organisms. These deep-frozen spores could
then make their way to other worlds - an idea called 'panspermia'.
But the chances are stacked against such an event. Spores would have to survive the meteor impact
and be thrown into space. The boulder would then have to leave the solar system and land on another
life-supporting planet. It would have to get there quickly, too. The radiation streaming through
space will cook any organisms in space rocks. Typically, says Napier, "the boulders will be sterile
by the time they are ejected from the solar system".
But microbes might survive if they can escape the Sun's gravity more quickly. And that might happen,
says Napier, if the rocks they sit on are first ground to dust1.
The Earth and her sister planets travel through a cloud of grains called zodiacal dust. This is the
debris from collisions in the asteroid belt and from the passage of comets.
This dust should sand-blast anything passing through it, says Napier. This process could grind a one-
metre boulder down in 20,000-200,000 years, he estimates. If a comet breaks up, thickening the dust,
as happens several times each million years, the process could take as little as five centuries.
Read the rest at Nature nature.com040216 20.htmlOpen ↗
Posted by Robert Karl Stonjek.