Biological material captured by the Earth. Science blog 122
The Earth, along its trajectory, around the Sun, and depending on its gravitational force, loses some materials and gains others.It is consider that 90,000 tons of hydrogen and 1,600 tons of helium are lost annually. Both can escape by the gravitational action due to their low density.
The Earth, along its trajectory, around the Sun, and depending on its gravitational force, loses some materials and gains others.
It is consider that 90,000 tons of hydrogen and 1,600 tons of helium are lost annually. Both can escape by the gravitational action due to their low density.
On the other hand, the gravitational action of the Earth capture solid material of different sizes and densities.
According to calculations made by the Center Nacional de la Recherche Scientifique and the Paris-Saclay University, based on data collected at the Concordia Antarctic Station, each year between 4,000 and 6,700 tons of extraterrestrial material reach the Earth’s surface. The data correspond to the material found trapped in the ice of the last 20 years.
This material is composed of cosmic dust (12 to 700 microns in size), asteroids and comets, which provide water, carbon compounds and indeterminate biological forms.
In numbers 40, 95, 101 and 121 of Scientific Blog of Veterinaria Digital we have taken care to describe the Extremophilic organisms sent on space missions from Earth and that have demonstrated the ability to survive in outer space.
In this presentation No. 122 of Scientific Blog, instead, we will deal with organisms that are considered to come from outer space and that can reach the stratosphere, stay in it for a time and then rush to the surface after a process of gravitational grouping among themselves or with other particles.
It is considered that particles between 6 and 10 microns, depending on their density, which are kept in suspension, are also of extraterrestrial origin since the Earth’s gravity does not allow particles of that size to rise from the surface to the stratosphere.
Stratospheric balloons allow the collection of those microorganisms that remain in suspension at high altitude. So scientists like Griffin, Harris, Narlikar Imshenetsky, Shivaji, and Yang have isolated particles too large to come from the Earth’s surface:
- At 20 km Penicillium, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Tilletiopsis and Engyodontium, Bacillus, Brevibacterium, Mycobacterium, Deinococcus, Staphylococcus have been collected and isolated
- Between 20 and 40 km Janibacter, Streptomyces, Bacillus, Metylobacterium, Acinetobacter, Stenotrophomonas, diatom remains and other unclassified entities have been collected and isolated
- Bacterium, Alphaproteobactaria, Betaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Spirillium, Leucotryx, Flavobacterium, Cytophaga and Vibrio, Mycobacterium, Circinella, Aspergillus and Penicillium have been collected and isolated over 40 km
In Veterinaria Digital we consider that the results of these experiences are important because they can demonstrate that living organisms have the ability to spread, through space (panspermia), on the surface of comets or even within the ice on their surface and reach different areas of the earth’s surface.
This mechanism could be the one that caused the origin of life on Earth during the period known as the great comet bombardment of the planets of the Solar System 4,000 million years ago.
