Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[kaijyuu]

Yeah but the concentration and type were especially unusual.

[Virex]

wait, haven't they been finding amino-acids and nucleotides on asteroids for ages?

Amino Acids yes. Nucleotides as well, but until this came along they couldn't exclude the possibility of terrestrial contamination. The nucleotides they found in this study however, were of types that were not found near the impact site, proving almost conclusively that they must be of extraterrestrial origin.

[Bauglir]

True, this is pretty awesome. It's merely not unexpected, which probably diminishes my sense of awe... I'm a downer like that. It is, however, nice to have my worldview affirmed, and to be fair I would be happy forever if the next thing we found was a life form that used a nonconventional nucleotide. Because, hopy shit, obviously extraterrestrial life, and it's also obnoxiously similar to terrestrial life. That would have some very interesting implications.

[Virex]

It's not extraterrestrial unless it's found ex terra. Finding a terrestrial organism that uses an exotic base, while cool in itself, just shows that Earth's life forms are more diverse than expected. And since there are no lander missions planned for the coming years you're probably going to have to wait close to a decade for new chances to find aliens.

[counting]

Or they find us

[Bauglir]

It's not extraterrestrial unless it's found ex terra. Finding a terrestrial organism that uses an exotic base, while cool in itself, just shows that Earth's life forms are more diverse than expected. And since there are no lander missions planned for the coming years you're probably going to have to wait close to a decade for new chances to find aliens.

Strictly speaking, yes, but if an organism (I'm assuming a microbe of some kind) were found in meteorite, and its DNA included nucleotides not found elsewhere in nature, and there is no known record of a similar organism in the environment near the impact site, then I'd find an extraterrestrial origin more probable than a terrestrial one. Not necessarily correct, but it'd be a hypothesis I'd be willing to endorse as probable. Possibly I should've specified finding such an organism in an environment where an extraterrestrial origin would be feasible, but I figured that was obvious from context.

[Virex]

I don't think finding bacteria on a meteorite is to be expected. You see, biochemistry hinges strongly on the availability of a solvent. In earth's case it's water, but for example ammonia could also take the same role in a colder environment. Meteorites however lack a viable solvent. It would be possible if said meteorite was once part of a life-bearing planet, but any event that could expel a meteorite would be so violent that it's a miracle if any trace of organics survives. The only thing I could think of that could fit the bill and fall on earth is a comet.

[Acanthus117]

Overall, it's an interesting find. I wonder what we'll find in the future.

[Bauglir]

I don't think finding bacteria on a meteorite is to be expected. You see, biochemistry hinges strongly on the availability of a solvent. In earth's case it's water, but for example ammonia could also take the same role in a colder environment. Meteorites however lack a viable solvent. It would be possible if said meteorite was once part of a life-bearing planet, but any event that could expel a meteorite would be so violent that it's a miracle if any trace of organics survives. The only thing I could think of that could fit the bill and fall on earth is a comet.

That is a good point; I suppose I was approaching it only from the "Such compounds occur off the Earth" part, which is not even slightly surprising to me. That some could occur in a position where they could survive entering the Earth's atmosphere is rather impressive.

[Virex]

It's not that strange, as the stuff was in the core of a meteorite and while the crust is burnt off, the core remains relatively cool. It wouldn't surprise me if this stuff was actually formed in the protoplanetary disk (as many simple organic compounds are found in relatively dense gas clouds), which would make it older then the earth itself.

[Bauglir]

Makes sense, but as you said earlier, it's not exactly something that would've been predicted. I'm counting being in a position to undergo entry into the atmosphere (as opposed to reentry) in the first place as part of the condition of being able to survive reentry, you see.

[Jacob/Lee]

Or they find us

I hope we find them, them finding us is kind of... Dangerous, depending on how low they are on resources/hostile they are.

[kaijyuu]

I seriously doubt any aliens that found us would be hostile. Earth has nothing to offer that the rest of the universe doesn't have in massive abundance.

I foresee two possible reactions:

1) Complete and utter apathy.
2) Them calling Earth a nature reserve and purposefully avoiding messing with it.

[Dsarker]

I seriously doubt any aliens that found us would be hostile. Earth has nothing to offer that the rest of the universe doesn't have in massive abundance.

I foresee two possible reactions:

1) Complete and utter apathy.
2) Them calling Earth a nature reserve and purposefully avoiding messing with it.

Or they might be violently allergic to, say, hydrogen based life forms and destroying the planet just to be sure. Or whatever.

[kaijyuu]

If they're allergic to hydrogen they're already screwed since that crap is EVERYWHERE.


Absolute worst case scenario is they send a colony ship and happen to like Earth's nice stable climate. Of course, they'll want to get rid of all the native species polluting that climate (IE, us). But, eradicate everything and consume all our resources like in those cheesy alien invasion movies? Naw.