• Question: Do you think life started on Earth or did it come from outer space?

    Asked by michaelwhu to Adam, Geoff, Rob, Sheila, Suzie on 22 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Suzie Sheehy

      Suzie Sheehy answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      I like the theory that the amino acids which were essential for life to start came from outer space and got deposited when meteorites hit the Earth. I don’t know how much of it is theory and how much is evidence, though…

    • Photo: Adam Tuff

      Adam Tuff answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      That’s an interesting question! I think it would be hard to prove either way. I’d however suspect that it probably started on Earth – for one life would have had to travel huge distances in space, on an asteroid most likely. It seems unlikely life could survive on one of these – perhaps the basic building blocks of life came from space…

    • Photo: Sheila Kanani

      Sheila Kanani answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      I quite like the theory that life came to Earth on a comet….

    • Photo: Robert Simpson

      Robert Simpson answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      Good one! Well the idea that life originated in space is usually based around the idea that we do see some molecules associated with life out there in space. We don’t see life itself out there of course, just some of the molecules that make up life. Some people have proposed that these molecules – or even basic lifeforms – could have hitched a ride to Earth on a comet. There were a lot of collisions with comets and other rocky things back in the early days of the solar system.

      This theory is called panspermia, but it is very hard to find evidence for it one way or the other. It is simpler to assume the molecules were already around on Earth – but panspermia isn’t impossible.

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