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Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov suspects an extraterrestrial origin for bacteria found on the exterior of the ISS:
A Russian cosmonaut claims to have caught aliens. Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov says he found bacteria clinging to the external surface of the International Space Station that didn't come from the surface of Earth.
Shkaplerov told the Russian news agency that cosmonauts collected the bacteria by swabbing the outside of the space station during space walks years ago.
"And now it turns out that somehow these swabs reveal bacteria that were absent during the launch of the ISS module," Shkapkerov told TASS. "That is, they have come from outer space and settled along the external surface. They are being studied so far and it seems that they pose no danger."
A recent study suggests that interplanetary dust can transport microbes to or from Earth:
Astronomers have long believed that asteroid (or comet) impacts were the only natural way to transport life between planets. However, a new study published November 6 in Astrobiology suggests otherwise.
The study, authored by Professor Arjun Berera from the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy, suggests that life on Earth may have begun when fast-moving streams of space dust carried microscopic organisms to our planet. Berera found that these streams of interplanetary dust are not only capable of transporting particles to Earth, but also from it.
Space Dust Collisions as a Planetary Escape Mechanism (DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1662) (DX) (arXiv link above)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Wednesday November 29 2017, @10:47AM (5 children)
Life, that thing we think started somewhere other than Earth, is capable of escaping the Earth and going elsewhere.
Is that a shock? We know that there are all kinds of insects that can reach amazing heights - bumblebees over Mount Everest and all sorts.
When you then dial down to any kind of microscopic, lighter-than-air, single-celled organism? That it can escape the earth, be blown by freak chance out into the void? Not surprising. The world isn't a snooker ball or perfect boundary and zero forces, it has tides, winds, is hit by waves of radiation and outside objects all the time (which must then splash *something* back up, no?).
Our own heavy equipment has floated off out into the void, so something that weighs almost nothing that gets swept up in the remants of a solar flare? Yeah, it's going to be pulled outside of Earth's gravitational influence. And then it might land on something and reproduce. And I imagine there is a vast - but extremely low density - cloud of "life" around us at all times, extending out to the sweep of other planets (on the planetary axes) and beyond. It doesn't have to be visible or even detectable. We're talking microscopic cells that multiply and freeze quite well inside a vast expanding sphere millions of miles square.
However... something on the ISS? I would be much more inclined to blame stuff we've sent to the ISS or the ISS itself rather than some magic space dust from a billion miles away suddenly landing on a tiny part of a tiny space station orbiting a tiny planet and breeding to the point it's visible in a matter of only years.
Not impossible. Practically guaranteed somewhere, in fact. Just improbable, given the statistics, and the vast overwhelming cloud of life just a few mm away inside or the huge active gaia sitting a few miles underneath it.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @10:58AM
I'll tell you what it actually is.
The global warming deniers and Trump supporters who excrete here, on S/N, an amount of septic matter which reaches astronomical proportion.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Wednesday November 29 2017, @12:46PM
https://www.popsci.com/alien-bacteria-international-space-station [popsci.com]
+++
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @02:18PM (1 child)
At what point do we ever believe life that we discover did not originate from Earth? Maybe we find bacterial life on Mars - did it come from Earth? It's possible. Or maybe it came from whatever seeded Earth with life (if that's the case).
Seems the only irrefutable evidence would be to find life that's not carbon based.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Wednesday November 29 2017, @05:57PM
The thing is, there's no possibility of globally irrefutable evidence. All you can do is estimate probabilities. And that's true for everything. E.g. a flat-earther was in the news yesterday. To me that's a joke, but he appears to seriously disbelieve the evidence that they earth is not flat.
What evidence will cause you to believe that bacteria are alien? Different people will be convinced by different evidence. I'd be convinced that the evidence favored that if their genetic code didn't fit within the kingdoms of known bacteria. I wouldn't be convinced that the proof was irrefutable even if they were silicon based. I have a large range where I'm not totally convinced either way. Many other people seem to have a narrow window, and once their mind is made up one way they are reluctant to change when new evidence appears.
All that said, the summary didn't offer any evidence that I considered sufficient to cause me to read the article, much less to make up my mind.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Thursday November 30 2017, @11:37AM
Very likely microbes floating about in the atmosphere can be pushed out into orbit ahead of a volcano plume.