3 ms·
Is the extreme danger for Earth or for the life form? What is it? Is it the risk of some extreme replication?
by reducesuffering 6y ago
Is the extreme danger for Earth or for the life form? What is it? Is it the risk of some extreme replication?
- stupendousyappi 6y agoDanger for earth. When we introduce a species to a new environment, sometimes it dies, and sometimes it becomes an invasive species and kills a lot of other stuff. And some of those invasive species are big (like snakehead fish) and some are small (like the smallpox virus or, frankly, SARS-Cov-2). Many experts think there's a risk that an extraterrestrial microorganism could devastate some or all Earth life, given that no Earth life has had a chance to evolve defenses against it.
- mhh__ 6y agoI think neither, actually. We know how to manage risk - we can process the sample on the space station if needs be. The issue here is probably contamination of the Venusian atmosphere.