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Question
It is possible that life on earth arrived from a asteroid that contained small bacteria or something similar?
The idea that life arrived from elsewhere is called panspermia. We don't know how life began on Earth, so its seems only prudent to keep open the possibility of panspermia in some form -- such as perhaps life coming to Earth from Mars. But even if life came to Earth from another planet, it still had to start somewhere. Relocating the place where life begins doesn't really solve any problems of the origin of life. If we are to consider life arriving on an asteroid, the obvious next question is how did life start on an asteroid? This seems unlikely compared to starting life on Earth.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
May 9, 2005
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