Evidence of extraterrestrial life?
March 7, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica
Ivuna CI1 meteorite filament. partially encased in thin carbon-rich sheath. (Image: Richard B. Hoover)
Richard B. Hoover, Ph.D. NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center has discovered evidence of microfossils similar to terrestrial cyanobacteria in freshly fractured slices of the interior surfaces of two meteorites. He found that similar to trichomic cyanobacteria and other trichomic prokaryotes such as filamentous sulfur bacteria.
“The filaments have been observed to be embedded in freshly fractured internal surfaces of the stones,” said. “They exhibit features (eg, the size and size ranges of the internal cells and their location and arrangement within sheaths) that are diagnostic of known genera and species of trichomic cyanobacteria and other trichomic prokaryotes such as the filamentous sulphur bacteria.”
He concludes that these fossilized bacteria are not Earthly contaminants but are the fossilized remains of living organisms that lived in the parent bodies of these meteors, e.g. comets, moons, and other astral bodies. The paper includes an image of a terrestrial bacterium from Spain for comparison.
He presented his finding in “Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites,” Journal of Cosmology,” 2011, Vol 13, March 2011.
“Dr. Richard Hoover is a highly respected scientist and astrobiologist with a prestigious record of accomplishment at NASA,” said Dr. Rudy Schild, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Cosmology. “Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis. Our intention is to publish the commentaries, both pro and con, alongside Dr. Hoover’s paper. In this way, the paper will have received a thorough vetting, and all points of view can be presented. No other paper in the history of science has undergone such a thorough analysis, and no other scientific journal in the history of science has made such a profoundly important paper available to the scientific community, for comment, before it is published. We believe the best way to advance science, is to promote debate and discussion.”
Giant bacterium Titanospirillum velox from Spain. Image: Dr. Riccardo Guerrero.
Comments (6)
by egore
Perhaps we are already controlled through virtual reality by alien beings with a much higher form of intelligence
by melajara
As the organisms are suspiciously reminiscent of planet Earth’s (proto) lifeforms, the obvious questions are
-Hoax?
-Contamination e.g. by infiltration
If that can surely be ruled out then the implications are staggering as then, most probably life across the universe is not only very common but even it is resembling life as known on Earth.
If so we are facing again the Fermi Paradox: where are the extraterrests?
Or a new version.
Considering the scenario from Kurzweil of a post singularitarian future consisting of matter actually transubstantiated into intelligence across the universe at the speed of light, this introduces the question : when will such a wave of intelligence coming from another post-singularitarian civilization hit us? Or will will be the first to hit?
And what about two waves of post singularitarian intelligences hitting each other? Will they compete or fuse?
by silentrage
“Redfield says that a microbiologist that she knows refused to read it.”
That’s how I do all of my peer-reviews.
I’m sure glad my fellow scientists are as objective and professional as I am.
/sarcasm
by Editor
Skeptical views: see “Alien-life claims spark monster mud-slinging,” http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20222-alienlife-claims-spark-monster-mudslinging.html
by paul benavidez
only a matter of discovery! the only reason to cross our fingers for good luck is to discover extraterrestrial life before the 1% that = 50% (rounded off) of the whole destroys the human species. profound discoveries such as the above and radio waves from intelligent sources (seti), microbial life on other planets, will rapidly advance our understanding that we are an organism of extreme rarity- organism defined as the whole of humanity.
by Mevarik
Alien microbes: the Copernicus of our age. Fingers crossed!!!!