It's Alive!!! Panspermia and the Possibility of a Living Universe

The theory of "panspermia" rests upon the ability of micro-organisms to survive a fiery passage through earth's atmosphere, and arrive on earth with the ability to reproduce.

....assuming that there are microbes on other planets, Mars for example, would they be able to withstand the pressure that arises when a meteorite crashes into their planet and catapults their rocky UFO into space – a pressure that is 400,000 times higher than that of the Earth’s atmosphere?

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI have systematically investigated this question for the first time: “We simulate the shock wave that occurs when a meteorite crashes into Mars,” says Dr. Ulrich Hornemann, who is in charge of the experiments at the EMI. “To do that, we detonate an explosive cylinder that accelerates a metal plate. This metal plate then hits a steel canister containing two thin stone plates between which there is a thin layer of microbes.”

When the metal plate crashes into the container, a shock wave is generated that passes through the stone plates and the layer of microbes. The astonishing thing is that even at 400,000 times atmospheric pressure, one ten thousandth of the microbes survive the impact of the metal plate; the main reason for this being that the inhospitably high pressure only lasts for a fraction of a second just like the impact of a meteorite.

Because the rocks that are broken off by meteorites usually have small cracks and crevices in them, the experts have also investigated the feasibility of porous rocks as ‘UFOs’. The result: Microorganisms can also survive here. And the small fissures are also advantageous to the tiny organisms in other ways, providing them with protection on their journey through space against UV radiation, solar wind and the icy cold and thus increasing their chances of survival, as the EMI’s project partners at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) found out. “It is therefore possible,” says Hornemann, “that life on Earth came here from other planets.”

Source

Check out more on Panspermia at Wikipedia. Even more at this SciAm article.


It should go without saying that humans have the capability to intentionally seed the universe with life. One way of doing that would be to send out robotic probes and nano-devices to prepare the habitats and life support (energy, air, food, recycling, etc.) for the humans to arrive later. This could be done on moons, planets, asteroids, and cold comets outside the strongest solar wind.

Another, more mischievous and less responsible way to seed the local universe with life, would be to send out engineered microbes. The microbes would initially take the form of inert spores, but would spring into active reproductive mode upon exposure to conditions favorable to life.

Can humans program microbes to recapitulate much of terran evolution? Not now, certainly, but in a few decades? If so, is there anything to be gained by "seeding" the universe in this fashion?