Martian Spores: How Life Could Have Flown to Earth ⚡ экспресс
The panspermia hypothesis suggests that life could have been brought to Earth from other planets. Scientists tested whether bacterial spores can survive an interplanetary journey: they were irradiated with ultraviolet light and rotated, simulating a rock fragment's flight. Computer modeling showed that particles ejected from Mars reach Earth within a few years, and under favorable circumstances — in just one year. The experiment confirms: transplanting life from Mars to Earth is quite real, as if nature invented "cosmic hitchhikers."
The idea of extraterrestrial origin of life has long excited minds. Fred Hoyle believed bacteria travel between stars. A new study tested a similar but closer route: from Mars to Earth. In ancient times, Mars had water, and asteroid impacts knocked rocks with microbes into space. They fell on our planet — interplanetary delivery without a sender.
In the lab, spores (nature's nanocapsules) were covered with a layer of dead cells, creating a protective shield, and exposed to harsh solar ultraviolet — hundreds of times stronger than on Earth. Even with the rock rotating, many survived. And calculations showed that such a rocky container reaches Earth in a year — faster than Magellan circumnavigated the globe.
This doesn’t prove life came from Mars, but it confirms: carbon building blocks of life can travel inside cosmic dust. Interplanetary mail works.
🎯 Among meteorites on Earth, there are fragments of Mars — pieces of crust knocked off by asteroid impacts and delivered straight to us.