Posted on 03/12/2013 10:27:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
A fireball that appeared over the Sri Lankan province of Polonnaruwa on December 29, 2012 was a meteorite containing algae fossils, according to a paper published in the Journal of Cosmology. A team of researchers, led by Jamie Wallis of Cardiff University, believes that these fossils provide evidence of cometary panspermia, the hypothesis that life originated in outer space and comets brought it to Earth.
Scientists at the Sri Lankan Medical Research Institute in Colombo forwarded 628 stone fragments that allegedly fell from the fireball to Cardiff University, where Wallis' team indentified three as originating from a carbonaceous chondrite. The structure of one of the samples led the Cardiff researchers to conclude that the fireball was once a comet. Electron microscopy revealed what appeared to be fossils of algae embedded within the samples.
According to Wallis and colleagues, this confirms that life on Earth had an extraterrestrial origin. The researchers even claim that what look like unusually long, thin flagella are proof that the microorganisms in the meteorite evolved in a low gravity, low pressure environment. Critics argue that there could be a simpler explanation. Modern organisms could have contaminated the samples. However, the researchers state that low levels of nitrogen in the fragments and the position of the fossils deep within the rock matrix indicate that the fossils are of ancient origin. It is not even certain that the samples came from the fireball. The reported trajectory of the fireball and eventual landing place of the fragments came from eyewitness accounts, which can be unreliable.
According to skeptics, lightning strikes could have formed the stones. However, Wallis and his colleagues say there were no reports of lightning at the time, and heat generated by lightning would have destroyed the fossils. Another possibility is that the fireball originally came from Earth. A long ago asteroid impact could have ejected rocks and water with biological material into space. Some of this ejected material could have reappeared in the atmosphere last December. Incredibly, all of the fossils found in the samples were of freshwater species that live on Earth. Their origin in space would imply that they had the same evolutionary history as their terrestrial cousins—remarkable considering their vastly different environments.
The Journal of Cosmology itself has a less than perfect reputation. In 2009, it published a paper claiming meteorites contained fossil-like cyanobacteria. Critics also greeted this study with skepticism. In addition, one of the paper's coauthors, Chandra Wickramasinghe, was the first to propose the panspermia hypothesis in 1981. Skeptics claim that he is fanatical about the concept, to the point of ignoring contradictory evidence.
More information: The Polonnaruwa meteorite: oxygen isotope, crystalline and biological composition, arXiv:1303.1845 [q-bio.OT] arxiv.org/abs/1303.1845
Abstract:
Results of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, Triple Oxygen Isotope analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) studies are presented for stone fragments recovered from the North Central Province of Sri Lanka following a witnessed fireball event on 29 December 2012. The existence of numerous nitrogen depleted highly carbonaceous fossilized biological structures fused into the rock matrix is inconsistent with recent terrestrial contamination. Oxygen isotope results compare well with those of CI and CI-like chondrites but are inconsistent with the fulgurite hypothesis. via Arxiv Blog
If I read your post correctly,
you’re asserting that darwinists are firm in their assertions that life has to originate on Earth?
I would say it’s the opposite. In order to “prove” evolution, they’d want to show that if it happened here, it could happen elsewhere, and ET life of any sort would show that.
Occam’s Razor suggests that the simplest answer is most likely the correct one.
Thus, this explanation holds the most water:
“A long ago asteroid impact could have ejected rocks and water with biological material into space.”
Darwinists reject all ideas that contradict their common origin thesis.
“”If I read your post correctly,
you’re asserting that darwinists are firm in their assertions that life has to originate on Earth?””
“I would say it’s the opposite. In order to “prove” evolution, they’d want to show that if it happened here, it could happen elsewhere, and ET life of any sort would show that.”
Evolution and the origin of life are 2 different things.
But, just to try to remain true to the theory,
couldn’t there be a “common origin” on another planet, “common” being common to that planet,
whilst all life here is “common” to this planet.
I would think that would strengthen the veracity of the theory instead of weaken it.
If they could show that it happened elsewhere, by chance & “deep time”, then that would show that it was possible here as well.
Indeed, evolutionists shy far away from the origins issue,
and extrapolate observed adaptation into something they don’t observe.
> ... carried space algae.
So that’s where libs come from.
"In this book, Fred Hoyle expresses an opinion which is rejected by most other scientists. He claims that all of life on our planet is descended from microbes which arrived in a meteor shower. Although other scientists say that a microbe could not survive the hot temperature which results from entering the atmosphere, Hoyle argues to the contrary."
The gentleman in India is always adament about life coming from space but he's part of a broader array of scientific thought. That's the one that argues that life on Earth simply isn't unique ~ that if life occurs anywhere it's going to depend pretty much on the same basic chemistry, and it's probably part of the natural process of star formation that life manages to get its start.
Consequently if we get viruses or bacteria from space they'll look remarkably like the ones we already have, and BTW, has anyone found all the viruses on this planet? The answer there is that we haven't, and yet the most cursory examination of the first foot of ocean water is that there are MILLIONS of viruses we haven't the foggiest notion about.
I think I went over to the panspermia idea when reports of exotic bacteria living in rocks deep in the Earth were confirmed. If life came from space it was pretty obvious it ought to be living in rocks buried deep under the surface.
That's a pretty big leap from fossils which may have microorganisms to saying that's how life on Earth happened. I'm sensing a request for, for, for Grant money, that's it, yes, that's what I hear the voices in my head telling me.
Occasionally you'll hear one of these guys say he's not a "darwinist" ~ which allows him to ponder just what is going on in epigenetics and methylation, and how that may be at the root of the whole DNA mutation business.
http://www.rochester.edu/College/BIO/labs/WerrenLab/WerrenPapers-PDF/1998_Werren_WolbSpeciation.pdf ~ I put in this paper from 15 years ago because this is the discovery that put the sword to Sexual Selection as the root cause of specieation in mammals and bugs.
31 posts and not one of Donald Sutherland.
1. The rock has not been shown to have any connection to the meteor in question. The rock has never even been identified as a meteorite, and does not appear to be a meteorite.
2. The diatoms aren’t fossilized and are local to the area where the rock was found. That is, these are earthly diatoms.
3. The publication is well-known for publishing reports that don’t pass muster for publication in accepted scientific journals.
There’s a fire....
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If true, this is VERY significant. Like, one of the greatest discoveries .......ever?
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