3 ms·

What is your actual mechanism for life getting to Earth from Mars?

• pjmlp 2y ago
  I guess we can somehow bind an asteroid, alongside a spaceship crashing in.
• somenameforme 2y ago
  We already know the meteorites from Mars probably do make their way to Earth on occasion. [1] From there, imagining some primitive life managing to hitch a ride is easy. Even quite advanced life, like tardigrades, have demonstrably survived days of exposure to outer space, and successfully procreated afterwards. [2] [1] - https://www.space.com/mars-meteorites-on-earth-mystery https://www.space.com/mars-meteorites-on-earth-mystery [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade#Survival_after_exposure_to_outer_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade#Survival_after_expo...
  • e44858 2y ago
    > Martian meteorites experience shock pressures of less than 30 GPa on ejection from the Red Planet Is that enough energy to boil the living things that might be in the rock?
• Qem 2y ago
  Early solar system had plenty of impact events happening. Mars has less gravity than Earth, so it's easier to eject material from there. Picture a comet or asteroid hitting early mars. Most ejecta falls back to Mars, but still tens of thousands of rock fragments are ejected into space, in random directions. Some fraction of them are likely to reach Earth a few years later, potentially carrying any microbial stowaways present in Mars by then.