Absolutely! Why not? It makes perfect sense. Not sure why it's taken
science this long to start accepting the idea. We have Mars and Lunar
meteorite recovered on Earth that were ejected millions of years ago and
fell no too long ago in geologic history. Mars has many meteorites on it
which were found by the rovers. We're reasonably sure most came from the
asteroid belt, sure, but that's not to say that there aren't Earth rocks
on Mars, or the Moon.
A massive impact on Earth will eject tons of dirt and rock into space.
Of that there is no doubt, and all of that dirt and rock has living
microbes in it. Some will fall back to the planets surface, or be
captured again by Earth's gravity, but some will continue on out into
the solar system eventually impacting other planets. Again, it makes
sense that this would happen. Go into your backyard and take any handful
of dirt and place it under a microscope. What do you see? Microbes.
Millions of them. So it's not like there's a shortage of microbes on
Earth. A large asteroid impact is without a doubt going to eject at
least some material into space. To me this is a no-brainer and something
scientists should have latched on to decades ago. Why some people are
still holding on to old ways of thought and analysis, and resisting
newer ideas, studies, and data I have no idea.
This is some of the most exciting news that I've heard scientists report
yet. The prospect of abiogenesis/panspermia is extremely exciting. As
Matthias said, it is "breathtakingly interesting!"
Regards,
Eric
On 8/25/2011 9:32 AM, Ron Baalke wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if ejecta from all the rocky planets have
been trading ejecta with each over since the formation of the solar system.
Ron
Matthias wrote:
"That reads breathtakingly interesting!
This once again raises the question whether planetary ejecta from
the inner regions of the solar system (Venus, Mercury) may have
made it to Earth (and beyond) just like Earth ejecta may have been
catapulted into regions beyond the asteroid belt.
... and, of course, whether future space missions may even find
"Earth rocks" on Mercury*.
*The authors (M. Reyes-Ruiza et al.) mention the Moon, Mars,
and Venus in their paper but there is no word about Mercury.
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