Lithopanspermia: How Earth May Have Seeded Life on Other Solar System Bodies

(Before It's News)

An artist’s conception of a rock fragment colliding with Europa’s icy surface. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

With the recent discovery that Europa has geysers, and therefore definitive proof of a liquid ocean, there’s a lot of talk about the possibility of life in the outer solar system.

According to a new study, there is a high probably that life spread from Earth to other planets and moons during the period of the late heavy bombardment — an era about 4.1 billion to 3.8 billion years ago — when untold numbers of asteroids and comets pummeled the Earth. Rock fragments from the Earth would have been ejected after a large meteoroid impact, and may have carried the basic ingredients for life to other solar system bodies.

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© Shannon Hall for Universe Today, 2013. |
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Post tags: Astrobiology, Astronomy, Europa, lithopanspermia

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