Search Results:

I’m looking at a paper just accepted at The Astrophysical Journal on the subject of panspermia, the notion that life may be distributed through the galaxy by everything from interstellar dust to comets and debris from planetary impacts. We have no hard data on this --...

Would panspermia, the idea that primitive life can spread from star to star, be theoretically observable? Henry Lin and Abraham Loeb (both associated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) believe the answer is yes. In a paper accepted for publication...

Panspermia, the idea that life might travel through space to seed other planets and even other star systems, is a fascinating topic for conjecture, and our understanding of the survival of various forms of life in extreme environments only adds to its appeal. But just...

Our recent look at panspermia concepts was largely devoted to the transmission of life via microbes or spores here in our own Solar System. The even richer question of how life might pass from star to star is far more problematic, but as a follow-up to that earlier...

We keep trying to extend our reach into the heavens, but the idea of panspermia is that the heavens are actually responsible for us. Which is to say, that at least the precursor materials that allow life to emerge came from elsewhere, and did not originate on Earth....

Living a long time forces decisions that could otherwise be ignored. This is true of individuals as well as societies, but let’s think in terms of the individual human being. Getting older creates survival scenarios as simple as ensuring safety and nutrition for the...

Here’s an interesting thought. We know that at least two objects from outside our Solar System have appeared in our skies, the comet 2I/Borisov and the still enigmatic object called ‘Oumuamua. Most attention on these visitors has focused on their composition and the...