PANSPERMIA

     Okay, now that I have your attention with my “interesting” blog title for this week, let me explain what the Panspermia Theory is all about. This is the basic definition lifted from Wikipedia:  Panspermia (Greek: πανσπερμία from πᾶς/πᾶν (pas/pan) "all" and σπέρμα (sperma) "seed") is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by meteoroids, asteroids and planetoids. In other words, all life on this planet in this solar system, if it exists on other solar system planets or moons, or throughout the Universe, began from insemination that occurred with amino acids, proteins, water, molecules and atoms conducive to the formation of life from early deep space bombardment. It is under the proper conditions for fermentation that life arose on this planet.

     This entire question of whether there is life on other planets, maybe even intelligent life, began for me many years ago as I started my research for my “SETI” novel trilogy.

I published originally through Penguin USA imprint ROC and now two of the trilogy novels are available through Kindle and NOOK…WITH SETI III now being written. My research convinced me that life beyond terra firma is quite possible, even likely and that the Panspermia Theory seemed the most logical method of transport for the chemicals needed for the initiation of life.

     Even in the last few years, tremendous amounts of data are flooding in from various spacecraft, telescopes and keen scientific astronomical minds here on Earth that back up this premise. Hundreds of planetary bodies have been discovered through perturbation observations of distant suns and through recent discoveries from images of planet formations in solar systems deeply imbedded in the Orion Nebula.

     The proof is mounting and simple law of averages seems to back up the possibilities. Consider that there is somewhere around 400 billion stars just in the Milky Way Galaxy, our galaxy. There are billions of galaxies in the known universe and there must then be trillions, TRILLIONS of planets circling those stars or suns. So you tell me, don’t you think that life does exist and has gotten a foothold somewhere else in this universe?

Of course, the distances between even our own solar system planets are so vast and the distance between other solar systems in just our galaxy cannot be crossed in even one human lifetime, we may never know. We in this generation will never set foot or see close-up high definition digital images from these extra-solar planets. But think of the possibilities, just think of the probabilities. Civilizations may be very far ahead of us or behind us in development, time then becomes meaningless. We all live, as you read this blog, in the here in the now. We have our daily struggles, happiness and sadness and our lifespans do not even register a blip on the staff of universal time. But while we are here we have been a gift of imagination and situational awareness as the human species to consider what it must be like on other worlds far beyond our reach.

     In a recent AP article Astronomer Adam Kraus of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy described that astronomers have their first hard image of a planet disk of material circling some 450 million light years from Earth. The material is estimated to have formed 50-100,000 years ago. So, then, right now as you read this blog, planets may have already formed. We currently see the light or image from 50,000 years ago, but right now 450 million years have passed. Star-Sun LkCA 15 b, as it is called, may be forming another Earth. With the fortunate accidents that occurred here on Earth billions of years ago throughout our 4.5 billion year development, intelligent life may very well be in its beginning moments.

     Consider, below data that suggests Oxygen is not just found on Earth but is distributed throughout the universe. Water, oxygen, energy from a nearby sun, panspermia chemicals forming the building blocks of life in other solar systems. Whadya have? Life:

 

Oxygen in Orion

This graphic illustrates where astronomers at last found oxygen molecules in space -- near the star-forming core of the Orion nebula. The molecules, whose presence had been hinted at in space before, were definitively confirmed using the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.

Herschel's heterodyne instrument for the far infrared, developed in part at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was used to split light from a specific region of the Orion nebula apart into its different submillimeter wavelengths. Astronomers display this information in plots, called spectra, which reveal the fingerprints of molecules. In this case, they recognized three distinct fingerprints of oxygen molecules, as displayed in the spectrum pictured here. The three lines show different ranges of wavelengths, with the signatures of oxygen molecules highlighted in pink.

The picture of Orion was taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope at infrared wavelengths.

Image credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

 

The universal chemistry set we share throughout the universe has worked here on planet Earth and may be working the same way from the third planet from LkCA 15 b, their sun, millions of light years away from our Solar System. All I am saying, it’s possible.

 

FF