Episode 585: Can Life Spread From Star to Star? The Theory of Galactic Panspermia

November 5th, 2019
00:00:00
/
00:12:01

The race is on to find life in other places in the Solar System, from underground reservoirs on Mars to the subsurface oceans on Europa and Enceladus.

If spacecraft, rovers or even astronauts make the momentous discovery of life on another world, that’ll just open up new questions. Did it originate all on its own, completely independently from Earth, or are we somehow related? And if we are related, how long ago did our evolutionary trees branch away from each other.

Even though Mars is millions of kilometers away, it could be possible that we’re still related thanks to the concept of Panspermia; the idea that meteor impacts could transfer rocks and maybe even living creatures from world to world.

But could you go one step further? If we find life on another star system, could we discover that we’re actually related to them too? Is Galactic Panspermia possible?

Our Book is out!
https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Today-Ultimate-Viewing-Cosmos/dp/1624145442/

Audio Podcast version:
ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2
RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio

What Fraser's Watching Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G

Weekly email newsletter:
https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter

Weekly Space Hangout:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/

Astronomy Cast:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK--MdCSg

Support us at https://www.patreon.com/universetoday
More stories at https://www.universetoday.com/
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain
Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday
Instagram - https://instagram.com/universetoday

Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / [email protected]
Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw
Chad Weber - [email protected]

References:
https://www.hoyle.org.uk/resources/virusesfromspacecompressed.pdf
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/The_Meteorite.shtml
https://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/03211549-lpsc-hermean-meteorite.html
https://www.dlr.de/me/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1752/2384_read-54290/
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Humanoid
https://phys.org/news/2018-08-timescale-evolution-life-earth.html
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1011/1011.0101.pdf
https://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2013/20130926-gravity-assist.html
https://arxiv.org/abs/1011.0101
https://phys.org/news/2010-11-necropanspermia-seeding-life-earth.html
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/198/3/723/1012846
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1910.06414.pdf
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/hubble-observes-1st-confirmed-interstellar-comet/
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/476/3/3031/4909830
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/hyakutake.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2YkvWdUUNQ

Hosts:

Guests:

Support Universe Today Podcast