Astrobiologists discover fossils in meteorite fragments, confirming...

Researchers in the United Kingdom have found algae-like fossils in meteorite fragments that landed in Sri Lanka last year. This is the strongest evidence yet of cometary panspermia ?????? that life on Earth began when a meteorite containing simple organisms landed here, billions of years ago ?????? and, perhaps more importantly, that there??????s life elsewhere in the universe.

In December 2012, a fireball was seen over the skies of Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka. Over the following few days, fragments of the fireball were collected and sent to Sri Lanka??????s Medical Research Institute, where initial microscopic analysis revealed siliceous microalgae known as diatoms. As you can imagine, with this being the first ever evidence that life might??????ve arrived on Earth via a meteorite, the scientific community was skeptical of the results ?????? and so some fragments were sent to Cardiff University in Wales for further analysis. The researchers at Cardiff are now reporting that they??????re sure that these fragments come from an extraterrestrial meteorite ?????? and that there are definitely ??????fossilized biological structures?????? within them.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/150417-astrobiologists-discover-fossils-in-meteorite-fragments-confirming-extraterrestrial-life?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=astrobiologists-discover-fossils-in-meteorite-fragments-confirming-extraterrestrial-life






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Just thought this was something cool to share with you guys [:)]

alien hunting

alien hunting

This reminds me of a philosophy lecture I listened to about how everything has to have a cause and effect, and that nothing can happen without a cause, so this algae that supposedly started life here on Earth, how did it come about? Was there an infinite chain of causes and effects? Or was there an absolute first cause? This is one reason why I find most explanations about how life began difficult to understand.
This is pretty interesting to think we might not be alone, but it also kinda ruins the ambient, almost scary feel of the universe.

[gouldy]

Certainly lends to the idea of Panspermia; but also could just be a very good sign that our planet is not the only rock capable of achieving a state where Abiogenesis is possible.


SkyArrow; I find it hard to see the origins of life as a philosophical question. I suppose it depends how far back you take the question of first cause. It's fairly easy now for science to understand how life begins on a planet (i.e. what specific ingredients are required), as far as inorganic matter creating organic matter goes. But obviously there are many other things required before that point, as those ingredients need to be created; again, which we can now quite easily explain, right the way back through the history of the universe as far as we are able to see, "The Big Bang". At which point I can understand how this does become a philosophical question, because we cannot see past that point, because that's when time, as we know it, began.

[Coasterkidmwm]

They didn't find any life in the asteroid, the media was just being a bunch of idiots as usual.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronom ... wrong.html

[gouldy]

I thought it was a little odd that I hadn't read about it in New Scientist, and that this article was the first I was seeing of it.


Should remember this when reading science from propular media...

^lol

I find it impossible for us to be the only living intelligent beings in the universe. Exactly how we started on this planet? Not a damn clue, but I like being here. Debate away.