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Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by noisy_boy on Monday December 02, 2024 @06:43AM (#42295236)
Maybe we are also result of such contamination crashing into earth few million years ago?
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by dTal on Monday December 02, 2024 @06:54AM (#42295305)
A few million? Absolutely not. We can trace continuous lineages connecting all living things on earth to each other, and to ancestors hundreds of millions of years ago.

Could early single celled organisms have come from an asteroid? Perhaps, but almost certainly not. It is strictly less likely than Earth-bound abiogenesis. Life still had to spring from nothing somewhere - all panspermia does is layer on an additional series of long-shot coincidences.

Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by adtac on Monday December 02, 2024 @09:02AM (#42296292)
> It is strictly less likely than Earth-bound abiogenesis

> all panspermia does is layer on an additional series of long-shot coincidences

Disagree. There is a lot more of not-Earth than Earth. I agree that the probability density (per unit volume of the universe) of life originating on Earth is much higher than anywhere else, but there's just so much more room out there for life to originate that the probabilistic cost of traveling to Earth is tiny in comparison.

All you need is a proto-life that's stable in an inert environment with sufficient radiation shielding. It could've originated billions of light years away and still have had enough time to arrive on Earth 4.2 billion years ago. That's a mind-boggling number of Earth-like environments.

In fact, proto-life doesn't even need to look like Earth life, so even environments that are hostile to current Earth life today could've been the cradle of origin (as a wise man once said, "life, uh, finds a way"). Additionally, environments that used to be Earth-like but eroded away are candidates too since all we need is for life to have escaped before the erosion.

In my opinion, panspermia is strictly more likely than Earth-bound abiogenesis.

Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by mongol on Monday December 02, 2024 @12:16PM (#42298190)
Kurzgesagt teached me that at some point between Big Bang and now, the universe had an average temperature equalling comfortable room temperature. Having realized that, it feels likely life could have formed basically anywhere.
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by ssener2001 on Monday December 02, 2024 @07:16AM (#42295436)
We are not such a simple thing that we should be the result of a simple random collision. Like your body -everything is cut out according to its innate abilities with perfect measure and order, and put together with the finest art, in the shortest way, the best form, the lightest manner, and most practicable shape. Look at the clothes of birds, for example, and the easy way they ruffle up their feathers and continuously use them. Also, things are given bodies and dressed in forms in a wise manner with no waste and nothing in vain
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by junon on Monday December 02, 2024 @08:18AM (#42295901)
Check out the giraffe's cardiovascular system. It seems you're alluding to intelligent design and there's a lot of very unintelligent "design" everywhere.
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by skinner927 on Monday December 02, 2024 @08:16AM (#42295883)
Tell that to the laryngeal nerve which loops around your aortic arch, for no good reason. And to our inferior eye compared to the octopus. Amongst other things.
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by 7thaccount on Monday December 02, 2024 @08:06AM (#42295793)
The complexity of current life could have still formed from incredibly simple means over time.
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by chmod775 on Monday December 02, 2024 @08:11AM (#42295838)
> and put together with the finest art, in the shortest way, the best form, the lightest manner, and most practicable shape

Yeah nah. Ask any doctor or biologist. Humans and most other organisms are definitely not put together like that. It's pretty cool and it works very well, but many things are just... why? There's lots and lots of hacks, questionable cable management, backwards design, dead code, and leftovers from previous iterations.

Just because we're a pretty successful organism does not mean we are anywhere near the pinnacle of what can be achieved.

Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by hooverd on Monday December 02, 2024 @09:58AM (#42296808)
I'd like to speak to life's manager. The human body is full of dumb shit. Who designed these shit ass joints!
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by 2Gkashmiri on Monday December 02, 2024 @11:26AM (#42297720)
We demand right to repair. User servicible parts
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by pavel_lishin on Monday December 02, 2024 @10:01AM (#42296839)
Perhaps that's true of your body, but my body was manufactured in the Soviet Union, and it shows.
Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by singleshot_ on Monday December 02, 2024 @05:02PM (#42300891)
Look also at my ingrown toenail, which for some reason grows about three millimeters wider than the nailbed.

Omnipotence, indeed!

Re:Ryugu asteroid sample colonized by terrestrial life despi... by hoseja on Monday December 02, 2024 @07:19AM (#42295453)
I don't understand panspermia enjoyers. The Earth was just sitting there for a couple billion years; what sensibility of yours does it offend to accept abiogenesis occurred on it that you have to imagine weird impact ejecta delivery systems.