NASA scientist: Evidence of alien life on meteorite

[IDemo]

Source: cbsnews.com

March 5, 2011 2:01 PM

In what's sure to rekindle the debate over the question of life beyond Earth, a scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center says he has fossil evidence of bacterial life inside of a rare class of meteorites .

Writing in the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology, Richard B. Hoover argues that an examination of a collection of 9 meteorites - called CI1 carbonaceous meteorites - contain "indigenous fossils" of bacterial life.

"The complex filaments found embedded in the CI1 carbonaceous meteorites represent the remains of indigenous microfossils of cyanobacteria, " according to Hoover. That matter-of-fact sentence also underscores the shout-out-loud implication that the detection of fossils of cyanobacteria in the CI1 meteorites raises the possibility of life on comets. And Hoover does not shy away from offering that very conclusion.

Skeptics will doubtless weigh in soon with questions. Still, Hoover's proposition may have stirred more controversy several years ago. More recently, though, some scientists have suggested that meteors and comets slamming into the Earth brought with them the very integuments of life, including water and a host of complex organic chemicals. If he's right, Hoover may have evidence to support that theory. He argues that the complex filaments he found embedded in the meteors are micro-fossils of extraterrestrial life forms that existed on the meteorites a long time ago prior to the meteorites' entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20039658-501465.html

[ZombieHorde]

1. I hope it's true! nt

[Zhade]

27. Alas, not so fast -- appears that it is not.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/did_scientists_discover_bacter.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogs%2Fpharyngula+%28Pharyngula%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

[mike_c]

28. I've read the paper-- the publisher sent copies to academic scientists...

...all over the country to solicit reviews, so I've read it VERY LIGHTLY once through, without going back to clarify the many points I didn't get the first time. My sense is that the author found lots of anomalous structures in meteorite fragments that are somewhat similar to terrestrial cyanobacteria and other microbial fossils, but it's not at all clear that making the sames sorts of judgements we might make about known terrestrial objects is appropriate here. If we find similar appearing objects in terrestrial rocks we have some precedent for identifying them as fossil remains, simply because we know those lithotropic microbes do occur on Earth. It just isn't clear yet that a similar analysis is appropriate for extraterrestrial sources. THAT is one of the biggest problems with this paper, I think.

It might turn out to not be a problem, but we still don't have enough evidence for extraterrestrial life to know. That's the bottom line-- we don't know.

[jpak]

32. Ouch - nevermind

:D

[joshcryer]

35. Good overview, I didn't see that article but I was amazed by the actual paper.

The whole idea of using, as PZ points out, "one off" images of 'bacteria' is not scientific. I've encountered this garbage for years, again as PZ notes, with Mars Image Artifact nuts who insist that their images mean something. To prove conclusively that these 'bacteria' are real he should show more than just one shot of what may or may not be bacteria.

What this does prove is that new websites are all too happy to publish crank garbage in order to get hits and ad revenue.

[itsrobert]

2. That Big Bang you hear is Fundies heads exploding

n/t

[IDemo]

3. Especially if any of these aliens land in Arizona n/t

[cognoscere]

5. Like that guy in the movie "Scanners"? N/T

[Lucky 13]

30. The devil and evil doers put it there

to confuse us and make us question The Word. Just like dinosaur bones and carbon dating.

Or so I'm told...

[Orrex]

4. I for one welcome our fossilized cyanobacteria masters.

[socialist_n_TN]

9. GOT to be better than the corporate masters we've..........

got now. :headbang:

[WheelWalker]

6. Eu sou um fungo nt

[alfredo]

7. So we could be the descendants of space colonist.

[Tikki]

10. The way we treat our Earth...sometimes I think we just...

formed as parasites.
YUK.

Would be amazing to meet and greet others, though.


Tikki

[alfredo]

25. I think they are around us now, image below

[tigereye]

8. fascinating!

[Politicalboi]

11. It may not be a happy ending

Beware of the Blob

[Vinnie From Indy]

12. Like seeds on the wind

This is not a new theory. There is a long history of scientists offering that life on Earth was brought by comets and such. I think they are right!

[Ghost Dog]

24. Fred Hoyle, for example:

Distinguished and controversial British astronomer, mathematician, popularizer of science, and novelist, who rejected the 'big bang' theory. "Every cluster of galaxies, every star, every atom had a beginning, but the universe itself did not," Hoyle claimed. He coined the phrase "big bang" to mock the opposing model, according to which the universe originated from a spontaneous explosion. Hoyle also suggested that life had a cosmic, not terrestrial origin, and viruses could originate from certain meteor streams. He supported the anthropic principle, holding that there is a design in creation: the universe was designed in such a way as to produce life. "Our existence dictates how the universe shall be," he stated, and added, "a fine ego-boosting point of view on which you may travel, fare paid, to conferences all over the world."

...

After leaving Cambridge Hoyle worked at the California Institute of Technology, and at Cornell. Hoyle's nomadic phase ended by the spring of 1977 – Hoyle stayed outside the United Kingdom during these years mainly due to the tax laws of the Wilson government. The intervening years he spent partly in writing, in research, and partly in giving lectures. He published books on a wide variety of subjects, which were noted for their originality. Between the years 1975 and 1985 he examined the big problem of the origin of life. With Chandra Wickramasinghe, his former student, he wrote among others Lifecloud (1978), on the origin of disease, and Diseases from Space (1979) and Evolution from Space (1981). In these works he argued that organic molecules from comets are deposited on Earth during close encounters or impacts, they join the gene pool and make evolution possible. Copernicus (1973) dealt with the history of astronomy. From Stonehenge to Modern Cosmology (1972) was about archeo-astronomy. Hoyle's autobiography, Home Is Where The Wind Blows, appeared in 1994. In its last page he wrote: "After a lifetime of crabwise thinking, I have gradually become aware of the towering intellectual structure of the world, One article of faith I have about it is that, whatever the end may be for each of us, it cannot be a bad one."

/... http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hoyle.htm

[dipsydoodle]

13. I have read

that water could only have reached us on asteroids.

[Lastactiongyro]

14. Need to Name it "Andromeda Strain"

[DCBob]

15. Here is the actual journal article.. it has some great images.

http://journalofcosmology.com/Life100.html

[jpak]

31. Thanks - Hoover stuck his neck out on this! Someone needs to date those samples

or perform other geochemical analyses to verfiy these claims

best of luck to the author!

[DCBob]

33. Indeed.. some extroadinary claims he is making.

I hope he is right because it certainly opens up a whole new way of looking at the universe... to say the least.

[Vidar]

16. Exciting news. However, the CIA will probably find some way to

revitalize any alien DNA, wiping out all remaining intelligent life on our planet. I have faith in them.

[Teaser]

21. good

intelligent life has a lousy track record.

[SpiralHawk]

17. I, for one, welcome our new Indigenous Fossil Overlords

...somebody had to say it...

[boppers]

18. Yay!

Life is inevitable!

Oh, wait, people must argue.

[stlsaxman]

19. So... Carl Sagan was correct!

[sofa king]

20. I have a feeling I'll be seeing stories like this for the rest of my life.

And there will be skeptics trying to shout it down until long after the sum of the evidence is overwhelming.

[Zhade]

22. On the contrary, skeptics welcome evidence.

NT!

[sofa king]

36. Real ones do, yes.

But the "my magical sky pixie told me it ain't so" skeptics are the ones I'm thinking about.

[bemildred]

23. Life is everywhere in space, common, that's the way to bet. nt

[OnyxCollie]

26. Ich bin ein cyanobacteria!

[Vehl]

29. Awesome!

I really hope that we find evidence of Alien life. If this meteorite evidence turns out to be true...we might be Aliens ourselves...the results of life carried to this planet by these meteorites!


ps: What if Aliens land on the planet and claim that they are pro-choice? The fundies would have a collective heart attack!
:))

[LiberalEsto]

34. So what are the integuments of life on DU?

Water, beer, cyanobacteria, repukes?