• Question: how much truth is there to the theory: 'we evolved from microbes that came to earth on a comet'?

    Asked by comandopro456 to Anne, Beth, COLFlight, Jon, Tom on 14 Oct 2015.
    • Photo: Columbus Flight Directors

      Columbus Flight Directors answered on 14 Oct 2015:

      Simon: Hi Comandopro456: We still do not know how life started on Earth. What we do know is that Microbes can survive at least a few years in the harsh environment of space:

      Apollo astronauts recovered parts of a NASA lander on the Moon that arrived some years earlier. When they returned to Earth it was discovered that the remains of the probe “hosted” Earth microbes that could be reactivated despite being exposed to large extremes of temperature, space vacuum and high radiation!

      However if microbes can survive for hundreds or thousands of years in deep space, we do not know (yet)… Maybe one day one of the Voyager spacecraft, now entering in deep space, will crash on a Earthlike planet around a distance star and start life there!

    • Photo: Beth Healey

      Beth Healey answered on 15 Oct 2015:

      Hi Comandopro456!

      We don’t know for sure but it certianly seams a plausible theory! What do you think?

      One of the experiments we are doing here at Concordia is called ‘bacfinder’. All winter I have been taking snow samples outside to see if any bacteria can survive in the conditions we have here (with temperatures lower than -80C!). The conditions here at Concordia are belived to be similar to other planets, especially Mars. This is why you may hear it being referred to as ‘White Mars’. If bacteria can survive here then perhaps they can survive on other planets too!

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