We have known for some time that complex chemistry occurs in space. There are organic molecules detected in cold molecular cloudsWe even found sugars and amino acids, the so-called ‘building blocks of life’. within a few asteroids.

The raw materials for terrestrial life are widespread in the Universe, and even meteors and comets may have seeded Earth with these materials. This idea is not controversial. But there is a more radical idea that the Earth was seeded not only with the building blocks of life but with life itself.

This condition is known as panspermia, and a recent study has brought the idea back to popular science headlines. But the study is more nuanced and interesting than some headlines suggest.

Panspermia became popular in the 1800s and 1900s as it became clear that life appeared surprisingly early on Earth. On a geological scale, cellular life emerges when the Earth cools almost enough to support itself.

Given the complexity of DNA and living cells, how could something like this have evolved so quickly? In the panspermia model, life evolved either in space or on a distant world and was transported to Earth via asteroids or comets. We know that some creatures can survive in the harsh vacuum of space, so perhaps we have an alien, extraterrestrial origin.

But there are reasons to be skeptical. First, the transition from organic to biological chemistry can be highly adaptive. While it may seem like life appeared on Earth out of nowhere, it may be exactly what you’ve been waiting for. We won’t know without a sample of extraterrestrial life.

Although life can survive for a limited time in space, it is unlikely that an asteroid will survive the millions of years required to cross the Solar System; The billions of years required to travel between star systems are also much less.

However, one step towards proving panspermia would be to collect material from an asteroid and find that it harbors life, and that’s exactly what this latest study found.

The Hayabusa2 mission, launched in 2014, landed on a small asteroid called Ryugu in 2018 and returned a sample of material to Earth in 2020. The sample was kept sterile the entire time, hermetically sealed for the return journey, and opened only pure. Nitrogen clean room using sterilized equipment.

The sample was as clean and uncontaminated as we could get. When the team prepared a sample and examined it under an electron microscope, they found rods and filaments of organic matter consistent with microbial life. So the team found life on an asteroid.

But they probably didn’t.

One thing to keep in mind is that microbial life is incredibly robust. It is everywhere and spreading rapidly. You can find these substances in the cores of nuclear power plants, in hot thermal vents, and in the cleanest clean room. And even if you sterilize something, microbial life will find a way.

team when came to life in your examplesThe first thing they did was look for evidence of contamination, and there was plenty of evidence to be found. To begin with, the size distribution of organic rods and filaments found in the sample is consistent with those commonly deposited by terrestrial life.

Their data also found evidence of a period of growth and decline of approximately five days; which is consistent with Earth life. If Ryugu samples truly evolved beyond Earth, they would be genetically millions or billions of years removed from us. Their sizes and growth rates do not match those of our common microbes. So the best explanation is that despite our best efforts, the sample was contaminated.

Although the study does not support the panspermia model, it tells us two important things. The first is that our sterilization procedures are probably inadequate. We may have already spread life Month And Anthem mistakenly.

The second is that asteroids have organic materials that can sustain terrestrial life. This is good news if we want to establish ourselves elsewhere in the Solar System. Life on Earth may not have started in space, but it may well get there.

This article was first published by. Universe Today. Read original article.