Arizona Scientist: We Could All Be Martians

Arizona Scientist: We Could All Be Martians

www.universetoday.com

As long as we’re still pondering human origins, we may as well entertain the idea that our ancestor microbes came from Mars.

And Jay Melosh, a planetary scientist from the University of Arizona in Tucson, is ready with a geologically plausible explanation.

Meteorites.

"Biological exchange between the planets of our solar system seem not only possible, but inevitable," because of meteorite exchanges between the planets, Melosh said. "Life could have originated on the planet Mars and then traveAs long as we’re still pondering human origins, we may as well entertain the idea that our ancestor microbes came from Mars.

And Jay Melosh, a planetary scientist from the University of Arizona in Tucson, is ready with a geologically plausible explanation.

Meteorites.

"Biological exchange between the planets of our solar system seem not only possible, but inevitable," because of meteorite exchanges between the planets, Melosh said. "Life could have originated on the planet Mars and then traveled to Earth."

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Sorry if this article was discussed previously. The article says that biological exchange between planets are inevitable… therefore, it is highly probable that life could exist on other planet in our own solar system. The fact that microbes can survive a few years into space makes it even more probable that life could exist on other planet. Microbes mutates very rapidly and it could be that some virus managed to mutetate and could live into space much longer than a few years and then reach a planet where they mutate again and adapt to the environment. That reminds me of john Lear theory that there is life on every planet of our solar system. What do you think?

www.universetoday.com
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[edit on 22-2-2009 by rattan1]

I have two things to note.

It would be highly improbable for a virus to be the "mother" organism of life on earth, seeing that viruses need living cells of a single or multi-cellular organism to create more copies.

Also, I've always been a little confused about how exactly organisms from one planet could be transferred to another. Would this be achieved from debris being thrown out into space from a large impact?

Originally posted by PieKeeper
I have two things to note.

It would be highly improbable for a virus to be the "mother" organism of life on earth, seeing that viruses need living cells of a single or multi-cellular organism to create more copies.

Also, I've always been a little confused about how exactly organisms from one planet could be transferred to another. Would this be achieved from debris being thrown out into space from a large impact?

The scientist makes no mention of viruses, that came from the OP.

And yes rocks chipped away from a planet due to an impact can travel to other planets.

The theory that life may have originated from another planet is called Panspermia, it's quite interesting. Here's a good article about it:
en.wikipedia.org...

Scientists have recently been finding bacteria on meteorites, and while these bacteria may appear similar to those found on Earth they contain DNA code not found anywhere in our planet. www.lincei.it...

More extraterrestial genetic material: afp.google.com...

nice article. anything is possible, but sadly the question will never be answered