One eventually gets used to science claims with a lot of “may”s in them. From ScienceDaily:
Fast-moving flows of interplanetary dust that continually bombard our planet’s atmosphere could deliver tiny organisms from far-off worlds, or send Earth-based organisms to other planets, according to the research.
The dust streams could collide with biological particles in Earth’s atmosphere with enough energy to knock them into space, a scientist has suggested.
Such an event could enable bacteria and other forms of life to make their way from one planet in the solar system to another and perhaps beyond.
The finding suggests that large asteroid impacts may not be the sole mechanism by which life could transfer between planets, as was previously thought.
Okay, but we don’t know about life anywhere apart from Earth. Even Mars research has seen a recent setback.
The researcher, Argun Berera, found that powerful flows of space dust — which can move at up to 70 km a second — could collide with particles in our atmospheric system and that “small particles existing at 150 km or higher above Earth’s surface could be knocked beyond the limit of Earth’s gravity by space dust and eventually reach other planets. The same mechanism could enable the exchange of atmospheric particles between distant planets.” Paper. (paywall) – Arjun Berera. Space Dust Collisions as a Planetary Escape Mechanism. Astrobiology, 2017; DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1662 More.
At present, it is a good premise for quality science fiction. That said, it might be testable in the foreseeable future, by experimental launches between Earth and the Moon.
See also: Pretty discouraging news from exoplanet research: We’re not sure what to look for And most don’t think life will be found on an exoplanet by 2040.
and
Researchers: Water flow on Mars turns out to be sand and dust Mars is so close to Earth that it benefits from some features that enable life on Earth. Dashed hopes for Mars probably reduce the chances for similar exoplanets in galactic habitable zones.