space bacteria?

I was thinking about a random idea that popped into my head during which stemmed back to some discoveries i beleive that have been made in regards to bacteria from space and i couldnt remember if that was proven fact or fiction. I vaugely remember an asteroid that was found from mars or the moon that they said had microbial bacteria inside it but i cant remember the details nor if it was proven to be a fact or not. I also remember some other articles in regards to space bacteria but again i cannot remember if it was considered fact or not. Can someone shed some light on the subject , did the scientific community ever decide that bacteria existed outside of our planet and float through space?

There is a very well established theory called Panspermia, and it's the name for the theory that life exists and is distributed throughout the universe in the form of germs or spores.

I personally believe that life started elsewhere in the universe and was seeded onto the earth almost 4 billion years ago by planetary debris impacting the earth from space. From there, evolution grabbed the reigns, and it's been a wild ride ever since.



[edit on 14/12/2005 by anxietydisorder]

Oddly enough Panspermia falls into play with what i was thinking about and i didnt know enough beleived this type of creation of life theory to actually have a name for it. However the main question still remains does the scientific community consider space bacteria a fact and did they in fact actualy find some?

You are referring to meteor fragments that landed in the north (or maybe south... can't quite remember) pole of earth, which has been confirmed came from mars. There were interesting "structures" within the meteor fragments that looked like Fossilized Baceteria!

However, there's a lot to argue against it. First it's possible that bacteria around the area that the meteor landed, were thrown onto it, and started consuming some basic materials on it - and either becoming fossilized themselves, or leaving these consumption "tunnels", much like worms.

So, sorry, that was debunked.

HOWEVER, it did not mean that life can't exist in space! Remember the MIR space station? How there was a "fungus" growing on the solar panels out in space? This was mutated fungus from earth - which the mutation had allowed it to survive without an atmosphere (survived only by eating parts of the solar panels). This showed that life can exist in space - though it definitely needs some sort of food source still - and could exist as fungus of some sort on an asteroid.

I think that the consensus is 'no, there are not space-borne bacteria, but its entirely possible and there might be some'. So no evidence that they are there, so they can't be there in very large numbers.

Keep in mind though that complex carbon-compounds do form and exist in space also. So its possible that life can form in space too! (long shot of course)