It’s August. Slo Nooz Day is every day. Best time to air speculations that would be silted under by tonnes of serious news in October. At Slashdot, we learn “Earth Ejecta Could Seed Life On Europa” ( August 22, 2011),
Astrobiologists estimate that Earth’s hardiest organisms can survive up to 30,000 years in space, which means that if conditions are just right, Earth ejecta could seed life there.”
Which means, if we do find life in the solar system, how do we know it is not from Earth?
Rob Sheldon comments,
I think there’s a very good chance it is from Earth unless it is older than 3.8 billion years. (Determined from isotope ratios in fossils.) In which case, we might say, “How do we know life on Earth is not from space?”
The beauty is, we don’t. Free style speculation rules.
File under: Hope flings eternal
File with: We hear from the fans of Saturn’s moon Enceladus