Episode 585: Can Life Spread From Star to Star? The Theory of Galactic Panspermia

The race is on to find life in other places in the Solar System, from underground reservoirs on Mars to the subsurface oceans on Europa and Enceladus. If spacecraft, rovers or even astronauts make the momentous discovery of life on another world, that’ll just open up new questions. Did it originate all on its own, completely independently from Earth, or are we somehow related? And if we are related, how long ago did our evolutionary trees branch away from each other. Even though Mars is millions of kilometers away, it could be possible that we’re still related thanks to the concept of Panspermia; the idea that meteor impacts could transfer rocks and maybe even living creatures from world to world. But could you go one step further? If we find life on another star system, could we discover that we’re actually related to them too? Is Galactic Panspermia possible? Our Book is out! https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Today-Ultimate-Viewing-Cosmos/dp/1624145442/ Audio Podcast version: ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2 RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio What Fraser's Watching Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G Weekly email newsletter: https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter Weekly Space Hangout: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/ Astronomy Cast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK--MdCSg Support us at https://www.patreon.com/universetoday More stories at https://www.universetoday.com/ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday Instagram - https://instagram.com/universetoday Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / frasercain@gmail.com Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw Chad Weber - weber.chad@gmail.com References: https://www.hoyle.org.uk/resources/virusesfromspacecompressed.pdf https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/TheMeteorite.shtml https://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/03211549-lpsc-hermean-meteorite.html https://www.dlr.de/me/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1752/2384read-54290/ https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Humanoid https://phys.org/news/2018-08-timescale-evolution-life-earth.html https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1011/1011.0101.pdf https://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2013/20130926-gravity-assist.html https://arxiv.org/abs/1011.0101 https://phys.org/news/2010-11-necropanspermia-seeding-life-earth.html https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/198/3/723/1012846 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1910.06414.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/hubble-observes-1st-confirmed-interstellar-comet/ https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/476/3/3031/4909830 https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/hyakutake.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2YkvWdUUNQ