First extra-terrestrial life found?

[Ωbright]

Maybe?

[John Mora]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

I thought that they had evidence of this, like, a decade ago.

[Alex]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

I like the theory of life coming from meteors to earth.

"This finding has direct implications to the distribution of life in the Cosmos[...]"

The Cosmos is nuts!

[Loki]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

I thought that they had evidence of this, like, a decade ago.

We've had evidence of this ever since a guy first looked at the pyramids.

[John Mora]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

We've had evidence of this ever since a guy first looked at the pyramids.

[Kirin]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

Neat. I read an astrobiology book a while back that played off the Panspermia theory; it suggested that truly 'alien' life was here on earth all along (e.g., RNA viruses) or would never be detectable by us because we don't have (or can't make) equipment that's capable of scanning for non carbon-based (e.g., silicon) life forms.

The book is old so it doesn't take into account new findings like this, and the author comes off as a bit too egotistical for my tastes, but it's still a decent start for anyone new to the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Life-We-Not-Kn.../dp/0670034584

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

Fred Phelps says:

" GOD HATES ALIENS!!"

[Jehuty]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

I thought that they had evidence of this, like, a decade ago.

Fossilized bacteria is tricky work, often times its simply odd rock formation in the stone.

As out understanding of the diversity of life continues, expect more of these. As Kirin said, the panspermia theory has gained considerable favor in recent years as we try to understand how life came into existence.

Edit: Should of checked my news feeds first.
The paper is a fake, it was published by the "Scientific Journal of Cosmology" which isn't a real scientific Journal and more of a crackpot fringe pseudoscience website. The original story was broke by Fox News.

The suspected 'alien bacteria' had chemical analysis done on them, and they found virtually zero Nitrogen. So yeah.

http://rrresearch.blogspot.com/2011/...meteorite.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...something-new/
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2...ver_bacter.php

[The_Real_Crunk]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

and they found virtually zero Nitrogen.

>implying that all life in the universe must follow earths rules for what makes up life

[Jehuty]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

There is a reason Earth life uses carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen: Bonding patterns.

You can't say "Life can use any element as its fundamental atom". For example, say life was Silicon based, you could extrapolate that the most common elements it would use are: Phosphorus, Sulfur, Arseneic and possibly Hydrogen. This isn't random, its because of element reactivity, bonding patterns and electron valence in correlation to each other.

Edit: this isn't an issue of following 'Earth's Rules'. Its an issue of following chemistry rules, which are universal.

And until the day we meet a real world Andromeda strain, I doubt that will change.

[Kirin]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

The suspected 'alien bacteria' had chemical analysis done on them, and they found virtually zero Nitrogen. So yeah.

True, but it didn't leave us quite empty-handed: they also found that same rock was polarized. This implied that Mars did have a magnetic field at one point in its life-- meaning that it could have harbored life, and the idea that "life from space" is still feasible.

True, carbon-nitrogen-oxygen bonds are the most stable and likely to form, but silicon isn't impossible; it just limits the type of life we'd expect to find. Anything silicon-based isn't going to be stable after a few cells, and it'd only be found in environments where the evolutionary process would be really slow and the environment really cold. A lot of people are still interested in the methane lakes of Titan, citing that the liquid methane could be a substitute universal solvent and that silicon-based life could evolve there. Even if they're right, this is still hampered by the "we've no equipment to detect this" clause. Even though I'd like to be optimistic, I'm starting to think that the only thing we'll ever find (if we do find anything) are little clusters of bacteria-like organisms.

[Jehuty]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

True, but it didn't leave us quite empty-handed: they also found that same rock was polarized. This implied that Mars did have a magnetic field at one point in its life-- meaning that it could have harbored life, and the idea that "life from space" is still feasible.

True, carbon-nitrogen-oxygen bonds are the most stable and likely to form, but silicon isn't impossible; it just limits the type of life we'd expect to find. Anything silicon-based isn't going to be stable after a few cells, and it'd only be found in environments where the evolutionary process would be really slow and the environment really cold. A lot of people are still interested in the methane lakes of Titan, citing that the liquid methane could be a substitute universal solvent and that silicon-based life could evolve there. Even if they're right, this is still hampered by the "we've no equipment to detect this" clause. Even though I'd like to be optimistic, I'm starting to think that the only thing we'll ever find (if we do find anything) are little clusters of bacteria-like organisms.

Agreed! Although I thought it was well accepted that Mars had a geo-magnetic field in its distant past?

Interestingly enough, some chemists think 'normal' earth bacteria could live on Titan aswell. Methane is an exact opposite to Water in someways, but exactly like it in others. Artificially we can construct workable cell membranes in methane solvents simply by altering hydrophobicity in the phospholipid bilayer.

Lets not forget about Europa. Liquid water is indeed present under its shear ice surface, its possible entire ecosystems could form around geothermal vents. The likeliness of liquid water is very high too, due to the high energy Europa generates due to its orbit around Jupiter.

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

i just read about this not more then a month ago. its an interesting theory to our creation.

im not sure i can see any kind of lifeform living for such a long time in a vacuum.

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

Until we stop finding life we believed was impossible on our own planet I put no stock in any guidelines on how we detect and characterize life.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: First extra-terrestrial life found?

I agree. Like how we've found non-carbon-based lifeforms near volcanic vents in the ocean. The way I figure, those vents probably haven't been around for billions of years, so the lifeforms only seem primitive 'cause they haven't had as much time to evolve.

/speculation