Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday November 29 2017, @09:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the space-boogers dept.

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.

Also at TASS, Newsweek, BGR.

Space Dust Collisions as a Planetary Escape Mechanism (DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1662) (DX) (arXiv link above)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday November 29 2017, @04:35PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday November 29 2017, @04:35PM (#603048) Journal

    https://phys.org/news/2010-08-microbes-survive-year-space.html [phys.org]

    Bacteria collected from rocks taken from the cliffs at the tiny English fishing village of Beer in Devon, have survived on the outside surface of the International Space Station for 553 days. The bacteria, known as OU-20, resemble cyanobacteria called Gloeocapsa.

    The rocks were placed on the outside of the European Space Agency's technology exposure facility at one end of the space station. The small chunks of Beer cliff had microbes inside and on the outside of the rocks. During their year and a half outside the space station they would have had to endure extreme shifts in temperature, exposure to cosmic rays and ultraviolet light. Not only is the environment anaerobic, but the vacuum of space would also have caused all the water in the rocks to boil away.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 2) by leftover on Wednesday November 29 2017, @08:43PM

    by leftover (2448) on Wednesday November 29 2017, @08:43PM (#603162)

    This, exactly! Did they try to sequence the DNA? The article doesn't say. Nothing about what form they were in either. As for tardigrades, I vote alien.

    --
    Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.