Evidence For Comet-Borne Microfossils Supports Panspermia

New submitter onyxruby writes "On December 29th of last year a comet exploded over Sri Lanka. When examined by Cardiff University one of the comet samples was found to contain micro-fossils akin to plankton. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center tested additional samples with similar results. The research paper was published in the Journal of Cosmology. In practice this means that the argument that life did not start on Earth has gained additional evidence." Update: 03/12 16:59 GMT by S : On the other hand, Phil Plait says the paper is very flawed; the sample rocks the researchers tested may not even be meteorites.

Re:What If?

[durrr]

Nah, it's a freshwater contaminated sample, the diatoms found are not fossilized and they are all existing species. Go read the Bad Astronomy blog for details.

BA link

[Scareduck]

Here [slate.com]. Interesting stuff.

Phil Plait says no...

[janeuner]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/11/meteorite_life_claims_of_fossils_in_a_meteorite_are_still_wrong.html [slate.com]

Because it's wrong?

[slashmojo]

According to this..

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/11/meteorite_life_claims_of_fossils_in_a_meteorite_are_still_wrong.html [slate.com]

Not a meteorite nor fossilized diatoms

[jmichaelg]

Bill Plait's take on this story. [slate.com]

It's Junk Science

[Maddog Batty]

Bad Astronomer has done a good hatchet job on this story:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/11/meteorite_life_claims_of_fossils_in_a_meteorite_are_still_wrong.html [slate.com]

Re:"Panspermia"

[TapeCutter]

It's a false dichotomy. The idea that the emergence of life was a unique event is a religious concept not a scientific one. Life arose on Earth from chemistry, most likely near hydrothermal vents since the convection currents supply a cyclic temperature gradient and the vent supplies the chemicals. It may have been supplemented with life from comets (surrounding environment) but whether the first ever microbe on Earth was a native or an immigrant is not only an unanswerable historical question, it's also an "unenlightened one" since a clear scientific definition that divides living and non-living chemistry still alludes us.