Carbon globules in meteorite may have seeded Earth life

[ZOG]

With the billions of stars out there that we know about and probably billions more that we dont I find it inconceivable that our planet is the only one where life has occured, evolved, and been sustained. The key question to me is what form does it take ? is life all based on the carbon atom or could it be based on another ? if we saw it, would we even recognise it, and more importantly, CC, is that REALLY a hubble image ???

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Er, no. Back cover from Yessongs album circa ages ago.

Captain Chaos

[SteelRat]

The real question is where did the first cells which led to all life on earth first orignitate, regardless of organic globules trapped in space rock. The simple fact is that, at the moment, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that they originated outside earth, so it seems nuts to foster theblind belief that they did.

That's the stuff TBF! This type of comment can be very hard to swallow for some folk. We know that the universe is - and I quote - 'really quite awfully big'. We know it contains lots of galaxies. We know that there are lots and lots of stars in those galaxies, and we have found that SOME (and this number is growing all the time) of these stars have planets in orbit around them. We also have an idea that actually lots and lots and lots of stars out there are the hub of planetry systems - we have no idea EXACTLY how many, but we feel pretty safe to say that the precise figure would be a very very very very VERY big one indeed.

It SEEMS highly likely that some (if not very many) of these planets are of a type capable of supporting life of some type or other and this is where the topic tends to get pretty playgroundish. There is no proof at present of ANY type of life out there and to simply state that "there IS" is nothing short of the FAITH demanded in organised religion. Remember at this stage it is merely a scientific probability and therefore simply a possibility - no matter HOW likely. As we have no proof to the contrary, GOD is also a possibility - but does that mean HE exists? To say that HE does is BELIEF. It is FAITH.

There is a well known formulaic equation used to calculate the probable amount of life out there. The data entered into the formula are estimates, suppositions and theoretic quantum. The whole equation has the construct of an elaborate betting odds system and the answer provided is nothing more than a guesstimate of a possibility.

Although earlier in the thread I told a little tale of two planets colliding and life from one world somehow spreading like germs on a sneeze around space, this is a theory that while is possible - it's one I don't really like. It does seem more likely to me that the necessary STUFF formed here in the first place. I do like the idea that this STUFF may have been exposed to some sort of energy that we are not yet aware of in able to become 'the RIGHT stuff'. This energy might not even be resident in our own dimension. It may be an interdimentional SPIKE in the equaliser. It may not be a random spike, but a spike from a surge triggered by a flash point in the development of a solar system of specific mass, chemical build and location in space. Just an idea of course, but wouldn't THAT make life a rare thing indeed? I mean if one criteria for life be that the host planet be in the right point in the UNIVERSE at the right time and our Earth was IT - then duscussion over!!!

We should remember that all ideas, theories and possibilities are just that and nothing more. An open mind and willingness to entertain plausibility is a great thing. To draw our own conclusions on the most likely by all means, but surely we should be careful in open discussion of expressing favoured theory as belief. Thousands have died for such things. And besides - it just sounds childish.

Thanks to mankinds scientific achievement we can have a pretty good go at guessing the size, shape and age of the universe, and I find this amazing. Best not to get too carried away though - all this could just be an illusion

[The Warthog]

The real question is where did the first cells which led to all life on earth first originate, regardless of organic globules trapped in space rock. The simple fact is that, at the moment, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that they originated outside earth, so it seems nuts to foster theblind belief that they did.

I agree. I am quite sure that life originated on earth all by itself, and was never seeded by life forms travelling here by any means. It is a different thing, though, to suggest that some of the building materials, organic molecules, buckyballs, or whatever condensed in the dust cloud that formed the planets, and fell to earth to be incorporated into the first life-forms in the primordial ooze. Ultimately, the primordial ooze came from that dust cloud, too.