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A comment on Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth. Parent comment

Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by noobermin on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @01:50PM (#13708060)
One of the callers (a biologist, so not a crackpot) on TV suggested that given how close the planets were, he wondered if it were possible for there to be cross contamination between the planets given how close they are to each other. He referred to them being part of the same "ecosystem." I'm not sure how feasible that is as a non-astrobiologist, but it is an interesting idea.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by walkingolof on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @01:52PM (#13708081)
Very likely, since this happens between Mars and Earth:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_meteorite

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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by flexie on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:11PM (#13708269)
Fascinating! Would vira or bacteria beable to survive travelling from Earth to Mars in or on a rock or vice versa?
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by rzzzt on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:49PM (#13708600)
Tardigrades do survive in space: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by fsloth on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @04:39PM (#13709413)
Roughly quoting Neal de Grasse Tyson: Since so many bacteria survive outer space there is a good chance it's because of - yes - survivor bias. If only because early earth was bombarded so often that fragments of the planet with microbes took of in a meteor strike and returned home after a while in space.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by dekhn on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:43PM (#13708540)
Short answer: almost certainly yes, although i presume this is an improbable event.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by ConceptJunkie on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @05:27PM (#13709828)
It's not that improbable. They've found meteorites on Earth that have been identified as having come from Mars based on their mineral contents.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by dekhn on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:00PM (#13710075)
Sure, I was referring to the part where the microbe survives the initial blast, the passage through space, reentry, and landing, and happens to land in a spot where it can survive.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by sheeshkebab on Thursday February 23, 2017 @01:01AM (#13711957)
According to some research, microbes survival in meteorites is very likely (if they exist)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/11543506/

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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by dekhn on Thursday February 23, 2017 @09:42AM (#13714181)
I know enough biology to be skeptical of papers like that (although, I admit I was skeptical when papers from the 50s predicted interplanetary mass transport, and didn't change my mind until we found Martian meteorites). I'd like to see actual evidence of this.

I actually think the rock getting into space with the microbe embedded in it is not that unlikely (many rocks in the earth are laced with bacteria), nor the space transport. I think the excessive heat of rentry, the force of impact, and the difference in target ecosystems are what are going to kill the microbes.

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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by eanzenberg on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:24PM (#13708382)
Possible, but cross-section for collision is way way smaller in the Earth-Mars system. Cross-section goes as r^-2 so the closer the bodies, the 'way better' it is.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by hackuser on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @03:39PM (#13708945)
IIRC, that is a serious hypothesis for how life began on earth, seeded from elsewhere (maybe not Mars).

But certainly someone here knows more than I do about it ...

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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by bradyd on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @03:59PM (#13709098)
The theory is called Panspermia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by IndianAstronaut on Thursday February 23, 2017 @03:56PM (#13717699)
Considering the time scales involved, it wouldn't surprise me if multiple planets around nearby stars happened to be seeded with earth based bacterial/archaea life.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by CWuestefeld on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:37PM (#13708487)
One of the presenters is an old friend from college. Folks were offering him money to mention "Zod, our Galactic Overlord" on the air. I guess that didn't happen?
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by noobermin on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @04:52PM (#13709524)
No unfortunately, I don't think they did. That would have been hilarious.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by fsloth on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @04:41PM (#13709421)
The survivability of several organisms has been actually tested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_microorganisms_tested_...
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by nickff on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @01:54PM (#13708092)
There has been and continues to be cross-contamination between Venus, Earth, and Mars, so it seems likely that planets much closer together, and passing each other more frequently would have more 'communication' of materials.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by RangerScience on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:02PM (#13708180)
Continues to be...? Outside of human action, what's the vector?
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by nickff on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:05PM (#13708215)
My understanding is that it is mostly due to solar wind, meteorite impacts, and various other infrequent events.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by dekhn on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:47PM (#13708586)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_meteorite
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by colordrops on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:05PM (#13708218)
powerful meteor strikes spreading debris out of orbit.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by Symmetry on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @03:48PM (#13709003)
And the debris isn't heated enough to be sterilized.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by ilamont on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:14PM (#13708293)
Gene Wolfe mined this idea for some of his science fiction works, except it was alien life making the jump ... Fifth Head of Cerberus & Blue's Waters/Green's Jungles.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by dTal on Thursday February 23, 2017 @10:29AM (#13714623)
Even if bacterial material were being transferred all the time, I think it'd be a stretch to call them the same "ecosystem" unless they were actually reliant on each other. But I'm not an biologist either.
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Re:Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 l... by OscarCunningham on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @02:41PM (#13708526)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia
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