Space Dust Could Help Alien Life Jump from Planet to Planet, Says New Study

An asteroid strike isn’t the only thing that can transport alien life from planet to planet. According to a new study from The University of Edinburgh, space dust can carry high-flying bacteria on a trip from one world to another, even if the new planet orbits a completely different star.

“The proposition that space-dust collisions could propel organisms over enormous distances between planets raises some exciting prospects of how life and the atmospheres of planets originated,” said study author Arjun Berera, a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, according to Space.com.

But this isn’t the first time that scientists have proposed that space bacteria can jump around from planet to planet. The phenomenon is called panspermia and knowledge about it has existed for many years.

This study isn’t referring to the theory of “directed panspermia” which suggests that sentient aliens have spread their evolutionary building blocks across the galaxies.

Because of the new research, scientists are now learning that some alien bacteria and micro-animals like tardigrades can last in space for a long period of time.

Also, researchers have typically generally thought that comet and asteroid impacts as the only successful means of transporting simple organisms from one planet to space so that they could find a world suitable for their habitation.

Comet or asteroid crashes can transport rocks and microorganisms to different planets. In fact, scientists have discovered matter from Mars here on planet Earth. One of these meteorites, named ALH84001, is thought to contain some indications of ancient life from the Red Planet.

But this study posits that microorganisms flying above Earth’s surface could get swept into space by traveling space dust.

A quirky comet, with an unexpected chemical fingerprint, zipped past Earth earlier this year and is changing our thinking on how comets form and evolve. Details: https://t.co/egQ3n7pzFA pic.twitter.com/5G7U5ACwj2

— NASA (@NASA) November 21, 2017

According to the study, even if the process could kill the microorganisms, they still have the ability to start building life on new planets by implanting their “building blocks,” like the complex molecules that are contained in the microbe’s corpse.

“The streaming of fast space dust is found throughout planetary systems and could be a common factor in proliferating life,” said Berrera, on the study’s webpage.

Berera studied what takes place when these particles of space dust come into contact with molecules and particles that exist in Earth’s atmosphere. According to Berrera, this interplanetary dust is around us every day, raining down on the planet at speeds of between 22,400 mph and 157,000 mph (36,000 to 253,000 km/h).

The study was published in the journal Astrobiology.

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