A remarkably hardy bacterium can survive pressures similar to those generated when asteroid impacts blast debris off Mars, a new study has found, suggesting that microbes could endure interplanetary journeys and potentially seed life on other worlds, including Earth.
The findings, published earlier this week in the journal PNAS Nexus, may prompt scientists to reconsider where life could exist across the solar system and could lead to a reassessment of "planetary protection" rules designed to prevent contamination between worlds.
"Life might actually survive being ejected from one planet and moving to another," study co-author Kaliat Ramesh, a mechanical engineer at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, said in a statement. "This is a really big deal that changes the way you think about the question of how life begins and how life began on Earth."
Source: www.space.com
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