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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Panspermia - A Radiating Experience

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 07, 2006

In this interview with Astrobiology Magazine, Gerda Horneck of the German Aerospace Center discusses the effects of space radiation on life. She has spent her career studying the controversial concept of Panspermia – that life could be transported between different planets by meteorites. She has also looked at issues faced by human astronauts as they venture into space and explore other worlds.

I was trained as a geneticist and radiation biologist, so I've always been interested in what radiation does to biology. On Earth, we have ionizing radiation and solar ultraviolet radiation. So we asked the question that, if we bring organisms and human beings into space, what does the radiation do?

This was 30 years ago. Back then, Panspermia was not a fashionable theory; nobody liked it. Only after the martian meteorites were found did we realize, oh, yeah, material can be transported between the planets. Then Imre Friedman detected endolithic organisms – microbes living inside rocks - and so the picture came together that it might be possible for living creatures to be transported between the different planets. Much of my research was spent on identifying the different steps that are necessary for the interplanetary transport of life. We did either simulation experiments or experiments in space to see under what conditions it could happen.

Now, with our neighbor planet Mars being of so much interest, and so many missions going there, I'm again interested in the habitability of that planet, but again from the point of view of radiation. How damaging is the radiation for organic molecules, for possible life forms that could exist there, or for life forms being transported to Mars? And because I'm with the Institute of Air and Space Medicine, I extend that to see how habitable Mars could be for human beings.

Read the full interview here at Space daily.com: www.spacedaily.com/reports/Panspermia_A_Radiating_Experience.html

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When the first exo-biological organism is discovered and revealed, then Astrobiology will be accepted as a "real" field.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Are There Aliens Already On Earth

Here is a long article and excerpts from a a new book that examines the Panspermia concept:


Seattle WA (SPX) Feb 20, 2006
Conspiracy theorists will readily tell you that the U.S. military is hiding alien corpses in a secret facility in the Nevada desert. But paleontologist and University of Washington geology professor Peter Ward thinks that scientists should be looking for a different type of alien life on earth: alien microbes.

Ward is the author of several popular books about astrobiology, including the controversial Rare Earth, co-authored with Donald Brownlee. In his latest book, Life as We Do Not Know It, Ward addresses an issue often avoided by astrobiologists. Although all known life on Earth has a similar DNA-based chemistry, life found on other worlds may not. In chapter 6 of Life as We Do Not Know It, reprinted below, Ward takes this argument one step further. There may, he says, be unfamiliar life forms on Earth, as well. And scientists would be wise to search for them.

Back before the first dinosaurs, before the first fishes, before the first worms, before the first plants, before the first fungi, before the first bacteria, there was an RNA world - probably somewhere around four billion years ago, soon after the beginning of planet Earth's existence…. --Matt Ridley, Genome

The concept of extinction did not exist until the nineteenth century. Until then there was no sense that species evolved, lived for a time, and then went extinct. Because religion still held sway over so much of the world, there was a sense that everything God had ever created would still be found - somewhere.

Today we live in a world that is the opposite. There is a sense that it holds no more secrets, that the vast majority of its biota has been discovered and cataloged, that even the immense oceans, now steadily giving up their most famous wrecks to the Bob Ballards of the world, hold little mystery. But this smugness that nature and its secrets are now conquered might be a bit premature.

Full story here at SpaceDaily.com: www.spacedaily.com/reports/Are_There_Aliens_Already_On_Earth.html

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When it rains, it pours.

[Maddad]

There are two separate issues here. One is how much radiation a human being can withstand, and the other is how much primitive life can stand. Somethere I read about Conan the Bacterium which could withstand thousands of times the radiation that would kill a person. In fact, its DNA even repaired the damage. This would make it easier for it to survive a trip between stars.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The red rain phenomenon of Kerala and its possible extraterrestrial origin

Authors: Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar (Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India)
Comments: 18 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science

A red rain phenomenon occurred in Kerala, India starting from 25th July 2001, in which the rainwater appeared coloured in various localized places that are spread over a few hundred kilometers in Kerala. Maximum cases were reported during the first 10 days and isolated cases were found to occur for about 2 months. The striking red colouration of the rainwater was found to be due to the suspension of microscopic red particles having the appearance of biological cells. These particles have no similarity with usual desert dust.

An estimated minimum quantity of 50,000 kg of red particles has fallen from the sky through red rain. An analysis of this strange phenomenon further shows that the conventional atmospheric transport processes like dust storms etc. cannot explain this phenomenon. The electron microscopic study of the red particles shows fine cell structure indicating their biological cell like nature. EDAX analysis shows that the major elements present in these cell like particles are carbon and oxygen. Strangely, a test for DNA using Ethidium Bromide dye fluorescence technique indicates absence of DNA in these cells. In the context of a suspected link between a meteor airburst event and the red rain, the possibility for the extraterrestrial origin of these particles from cometary fragments is discussed.

Link to the paper here: arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601022

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Cometary panspermia explains the red rain of Kerala

Authors: Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar
Comments: 20 pages, 5 figures, paper to be submitted to Nature

Red coloured rain occurred in many places of Kerala in India during July to September 2001 due to the mixing of huge quantity of microscopic red cells in the rainwater. Considering its correlation with a meteor airbust event, this phenomenon raised an extraordinary question whether the cells are extraterrestrial. Here we show how the observed features of the red rain phenomenon can be explained by considering the fragmentation and atmospheric disintegration of a fragile cometary body that presumably contains a dense collection of red cells. Slow settling of cells in the stratosphere explains the continuation of the phenomenon for two months. The red cells under study appear to be the resting spores of an extremophilic microorganism. Possible presence of these cells in the interstellar clouds is speculated from its similarity in UV absorption with the 217.5 nm UV extinction feature of interstellar clouds.

Paper here: arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310120

[Maddad]

Thanks for the information. I passed it onto another group that should be interested.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Invaders from Mars

Back in the 1960s, Sir Fred Hoyle, the astronomer whose lucidly written popular books brought an understanding of the universe to the general public, teamed up with an Indian doctor, N. C. Wickramsinghe, with a controversial book, “Diseases from Space.” In their book the two scientists postulated that certain viruses from space had infected the human population. Their theory was called “Panspermia,” the idea that life on earth is a transplant from outer space.

As examples they pointed out how totally isolated arctic communities not visited by humans or even by birds had been mysteriously infected with a virus that could have come from nowhere else but outer space. The claim was that viruses of a certain size could survive entry through the protective shields afforded by the upper atmosphere. Certain respiratory diseases, they claimed, were a form of space invader.

Other scientists debunked “Diseases from Space,” and Hoyle’s reputation as a serious scientist was tarnished.
The idea was not dead, however. The concept was supported in 2001 by Dr Godfrey Louis who analyzed a cloud of red dust that fell over India and revealed life forms without DNA, the essential ingredient for terrestrial life. The assumption, echoing the science fiction story, is “It came from Outer Space.”

Now the idea of life entering our atmosphere from space has resurfaced, this time as a tough bacteria hitchhiking on meteorites from Mars. About 34 of some 24,000 meteorites found
on Earth have been determined to have originated on Mars.
In order to survive the trip from Mars, a bacteria would have to withstand extremely high radiation and live in spite of dehydration. Such a bacteria is Deinococcus radiodurans, which some scientists have nicknamed Conan the Bacteria.

Full story here:

www.northernexpress.com/editorial/features.asp?id=2250

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I think it's a valid theory.