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panspermia

Panspermia is the theory that microbes in space bring life to planets like Earth, or the process whereby this happens. Notable advocates of the theory have been Anaxagoras (500-428 BCE), Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894), William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1897), Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927), Francis Crick (1916-), and the team of Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) and Chandra Wickramasinghe (1939-). In different versions of the theory, the microbes are transported by light pressure (Arrhenius's radio-panspermia), unmanned spaceships (Crick's directed panspermia), meteorites (ballistic panspermia), or comets (Hoyle and Wickramasinghe's modern panspermia).

Many objections to the non-directed versions of the theory have been overcome in the last quarter of the 20th century as extremely hardy bacteria, apparently immortal bacterial spores, and water beyond Earth have been discovered. Evidence for organic compounds on meteorites and in interstellar dust has made the theory that prebiotic compounds come from space (pseudo-panspermia) well-accepted. More controversial is the strong version of panspermia, holding that not only life's emergence, but also its evolution to higher forms, depends on biological material from space.

Web Resources On panspermia

Cosmic Ancestry by Brig Klyce
Hoyle and Wickramesinghe
Panspermia Theories: Annotated Bibliography

Book Resources On panspermia

Our Place in the Cosmos by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe
Comets and the Origin and Evolution of Life by Paul J. Thomas, Christopher F. Chyba and Christopher P. McKay, eds.
Astronomical Origins of Life: Steps Towards Panspermia by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe

Editor(s): Brig Klyce

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