Hey! Mr. Spaceman

Life is tenacious and, it appears, maybe universal. According to research on meteorites, a strong case is being made that life on earth was seeded by meteors.

From Popular Science [article]

In what appears to be seriously big news from a team of NASA-funded researchers, scientists have found evidence that some building blocks of DNA--including two of the four nucleobases that make up our genetic code--found in meteorites were created in space, lending credence to the idea that life is not homegrown but was seeded here by asteroids, meteorites, or comets sometime in Earth’s early lifetime.

It would seem to me that this has been obvious. In the first place, the entire planet was built from space debris and dust. It logically follows that this is where the building blocks of life here also came from. Otherwise, we must accept that it was the Hand of God. That's hard for me, an atheist, to accept. So, perhaps I am biased.

It could also be that those who have asserted that such building blocks of life (as have been found for a hundred years) were biased and willing to accept contamination on impact too readily. It is the finding of DNA fragments (and the expanding understanding of this) along without solid proof of impact caused contamination that has cast doubt on that consensus.

The implications are clear. The universe is full of the building blocks of life and every object in it is bombarded by the "carriers", meteors. As we find proof of possibly habitable planets, we should also expect there to be life on them.

I am fascinated.

That alien life may, or may not, be easily recognizable when we finally get to see it. I am saddened by the idea that that day will come long after I have hit my expiration date.