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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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/

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.

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.
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 ...

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