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Did life originate on comets?

A researcher at Cardiff University claims the discovery of water pockets in comets * A team from the University of Aberdeen proposes to examine what happens to microscopic creatures when entering the atmosphere

Deep Impact
Deep Impact
The traditional thinking is that life on Earth began here. At some point in our distant past, mixtures of amino acids made the jump from the pool of organic molecules to something lifelike. But it is possible that the origin of life on Earth is in space, and they hitched a ride on balls of ice and dust - comets.
This is the controversial theory proposed by Chandra Wickramsingh, an astrobiologist at Cardiff University in the UK. Wickramsingh is one of the supporters of the theory known as panspermia - according to which life on Earth originated in space or on another planet.

Wickramsingh and his team are now claiming new evidence collected by spacecraft that has revealed how the first organisms could have formed.
When NASA's Deep Impact mission ended in 2005, crashing into comet Temple-1, it discovered a mixture of organic particles and clay inside the comet. One of the theories about the origin of life is that clay particles acted as a catalyst, allowing simple organic molecules to organize into more complex structures. The 2004 Stardust mission discovered a variety of complex hydrocarbon molecules when it collected particles from Comet Wilt 2.
The team from Cardiff believe that radioactive elements inside the comet could create a place hot enough to keep water in a liquid state for millions of years. These ice balls could serve as perfect incubators for ancient life. When one of them crashes into a planet, it takes life with it to its new home.
There are many comets in the solar system, and many of them may also contain pockets of liquid water within them. Wickramsingh and his team calculated that the probability that life began in comets and not on Earth is higher than previously thought.
As with any controversial theory, there are many scientists who believe that it is overly speculative. Without actual evidence for the inventions of those deserts within comets, this is just an interesting idea. It is possible that the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which is making its way to the comet Cheryomov-Gresimenko, and equipped with a lander could be a vehicle to collect this type of evidence.

At the same time, about a week ago (August 9) scientists at another British university - the University of Aberdeen proposed to build an experiment that would test the survival of bacteria on a journey in space - cold, vacuum and radiation, and especially the return to the Earth's atmosphere.
The experiment, designed by Prof. John Parnell from the University of Aberdeen, includes screwing a rock from Scotland to the outside of a European research spacecraft - Photon M3. When this spacecraft is launched on September 14, 2007, the bacteria will enjoy the acceleration of the launch, 12 days in space conditions and then return to the atmosphere.
"The goal is to see the behavior of these organisms during their return to Earth's atmosphere, when temperatures are extremely high. This will tell us something about the likelihood of interplanetary life transfer via meteorites."


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12 תגובות

  1. It's strange that theories are treated as fact while theories change all the time to deal with new "problems". It shows that these theories can also turn out to be wrong and not fact.
    One thing has not been explained, even if it is possible for organic life to be created and develop to a level of intelligence, what gives them self-awareness? The only thing that is truly proven is "I think means I exist". No level of sophistication given to a computer should lead to self-awareness. Even if we give it features that simulate self-awareness - and an outside observer will see that the computer has self-awareness - there is no physical reason according to the science we have that a computer would really have self-awareness.
    At least I have self-awareness and therefore all the theories that have been accepted by the masses as "scientific facts" are as such theories.
    The main thing is that Benizri is said in the same breath as Abdullah to paint him as a dark fanatic. Sometimes it seems that all the scientists can do is blacken those who think differently by throwing theories into the air.

  2. Hello David,
    Nice to meet you here too.
    The truth is that the issue has been discussed here before and you won't believe what kinds of twists and turns they are capable of.
    Nothing obliges them to abandon their beliefs because, first and foremost, logic and truth do not oblige them.
    These are not only Abdullah and Benizri - these are also creationists of various kinds.
    The discussion was more hypothetical (what will happen if and when) because it is not accurate that they managed to create artificial life - not yet.
    What they have already created is a bacterium based on a living cell from which the DNA has been removed and artificial DNA has been inserted in its place.
    They also created all kinds of nice cell imitations but still not a real living thing - from start to finish.

  3. As I've understood, scientists have succeeded in creating a primary form of life from non-living elements.
    Just don't tell it to Abdallah Yusuf, Shas' leader..., who will have to admit God could be just some water in a rock... ;-)))

  4. Why is it new? If the organisms are built for space travel, then they should be suitable for a variety of situations, including the right gravity that will "wake" them into action!! Of course, if this assumption will be supported by the facts in the future!
    The point you raised joins what I wrote regarding mutual understanding between KDA and organisms .. but why deny in advance before the facts have been collected that will surely take years to collect and arrive at the real facts as it were!
    In the meantime, we and the scientists are allowed to make various assumptions that will be justified or disproved in the future..therefore if we find out from deep space (billions of kilometers)..I wonder what other northern information is in our genes?? If only the genes could talk!!
    And is this the reason for the strong desire to travel in space? Getting to the place where it all started?!!
    I think it's worth a documentary film..Hollywood??

  5. A question and point for thought for the forum - and if the creatures living inside the comet were to survive the heat of entering the earth (they are deep inside the comet and isolated from the heat), wouldn't they crash due to the high G of the collision with the earth? (even if they are "assassinated in water" or snow).
    Is it possible to carry out an "assassination experiment" that simulates the aforementioned with living cells "made on Earth"?

    Thanks in advance .

  6. The question arises whether the pre-life was millions of years in
    A comet's gravitational force tends to zero and suddenly they fall on the earth where the conditions are different from the comet's (gravitational force, atmosphere with a different chemical structure, weather, water acidity).
    What I mean is that pre-life adaptation is almost impossible.

  7. Don't know about the other creatures, but it is clear that comet floats and comet saturns were formed on comets. On second thought, it's possible that Saturn's comet formed on top of Saturn.

  8. Maybe the comets are used as carriers of organisms and genes in space? Let's assume for a moment that this is the situation and indeed the comets function according to the standard of carriers of organisms.. This leads to the conclusion that there is a place in space where those organisms are formed and from where they are dispersed to all the stars in space and where there are conditions they develop and develop biological life according to the environment and the type of "food" it offers!!
    If we continue with the assumption that the comet is only transporting the organism and there is a place where they were created and this is certainly a reasonable assumption because of the enormous complexity of the genes (I hope I wasn't confused!) which can build a huge variety of life and it is impossible that they were created only by chance but were a deliberate "thought" ( And it does not refer to God specifically). This is how one should look for the place where life was created and is being created!!
    To me it sounds logical that life came from space because of the reproduction pattern here of dispersing seeds in large numbers so that a thousand or a million would survive and that would be enough to create a world teeming with life... but here there is an issue that requires consideration and that is the Earth's knowledge of the organisms within it! Otherwise, it is not possible to explain all the activity of KDA that supports the existence of organisms and adapts itself to them so that they do not become extinct!! That is, it is not enough for the organism to arrive, the place to which it arrived must support its complex existence in order to develop as it developed here!
    And here it is possible to put forward two possibilities, one that KDA did adapt itself according to its "opinion" and the other is that the organisms contained such weak information that "adapted" KDA to their existence here by creating a "correct" atmosphere and thousands of other small things that created an environment suitable for the existence of life The sellers to us!!
    And a third possibility is (I thought about it while I was doing it!) that the two things happened together both as D.A. thought about it and also received vital information from the organisms themselves or from another part of the appendix to them (and disappeared in the meantime) !!
    Of course, all this is a small game with discounts!!

  9. It seems so natural to me that water and carbon based life would develop almost anywhere that water is liquid. To me it sounds quite natural that life will develop on Earth and in other places like comets that will penetrate and fertilize the earth with additional life forms.

    Polkowski's latest research from PNAS, in which they managed to grow eight million year old germs, makes it quite difficult for this theory that animals penetrated the earth from the outside - this is thanks to cosmic radiation that infects and breaks the genome.

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