SpaceRef - Astrobiology and Life Science

SpaceRef - Astrobiology and Life Science - Panspermia

29 May 2006

Panspermia, Wikipedia - Panspermia is the hypothesis that the seeds of life are ubiquitous in the Universe, that they may have delivered life to Earth, and that they may deliver or have delivered life to other habitable bodies; also the process of such delivery.

Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques (2002) This paper discusses the collection of samples from primitive solar system bodies. A comet or asteroid sample return mission, though expensive, can be only half the price of a major "flagship," planetary mission. In addition to mission-targeted bodies, some 20,000 meteorites have landed on Earth at no cost.

Ballistic Panspermia - This page at Scientific American Frontiers discusses the factors involved in the ejection of material from a planet as the result of a large impact and what is involved in moving that material onto the surface of another planet (panspermia).

Cosmic Ancestry: Panspermia - This website deals exhaustively with the idea that life can travel between worlds by natural means - an old idea gaining new interest. It covers a wide range of astrobiology and astrochemistry topics and is updated on a regular basis.

Life From Space? Testing Panspermia With Martian Meteorite ALH84001 - This article by by Benjamin P. Weiss and Joseph L. Kirschvink deals with the concept of panspermia and the possibility and probability that viable life forms can be transported between planets such as Earth and Mars. This article appears in the November/December 2000 issue of The Planetary Report.

Meteorites and Comets: Organic Matter and Exobiological Hypotheses, 1834-Present - A large online bibliography regarding organic material on extraterrestrail objects such as comets and meteors. Also includes references to papers on panspermia.

Panspermia Revisited - The discovery of evidence for life on Earth more than 3850 million years ago naturally encourages a revival of speculation about the possibility that life did not originate on Earth, but was carried to the planet in the form of microorganisms such as bacteria, either by natural processes or deliberate seeding of the Galaxy by intelligent beings. This idea, known as panspermia, has a long history. Abstract of a 1999 paper written by John Gribbin,Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex.

Possibility of Arrival of Living Organisms from Space - This online bibliography (Panspermia Theories: Annotated Bibliography, Section III) contains references to a number of papers on panspermia and the origin of life.

Society for Life in Space (SOLIS) - edicated to promote the future of life in space through directed panspermia. Payloads of selected microorganisms will start evolution in new solar systems. Panspermia missions can start in this century.