An international company reports that under certain conditions, there is a high probability that life came to Earth—or spread from Earth to other planets—during the solar system’s infancy when Earth and its planetary neighbors orbiting other stars would have been close enough to each other to exchange lots of solid material.
The conclusion—published in the journal Astrobiology—offer the strongest support yet for “lithopanspermia,” the idea that basic life forms are distributed throughout the universe via meteorite-like planetary fragments cast forth by disruptions such as planet and asteroid collisions.
Eventually, other planetary system’s gravity traps these roaming rocks, which can result in a mingling that transfers any living cargo.
“Even today, some of these rocks leak out of the asteroid belt and hit planets,” adds Malhotra. “That’s how we earn meteorites. Some of them area on other planets, and any get thrown out of the solar system.”
“With this study, we wanted to find out what happens to those small rocks that are thrown out and escape the solar system. Where act they go?”
Previous research suggested that,commonly, those small rocks called meteoroids leave the solar system at high speeds, making the chances of being snagged in the gravitational pull of another object highly unlikely.
“Those studies assumed a typical momentum of 5,000 meters per second or more,” notes Malhotra. “They neglected the small fraction of subtantial leaving a solar system at speeds slow enough to be captured by other planetary systems.”
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