Possible Fossilized Microbial Life Forms On Recent Meteorite

[Overcame Faith]

What do you folks make of this study?  I find it quite interesting.

 

 

FOSSIL DIATOMS IN A NEW CARBONACEOUS METEORITE

 

ABSTRACT

 

We report the discovery for the first time of diatom frustules in a carbonaceous meteorite that fell in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka on 29 December 2012. Contamination is excluded by the circumstance that the elemental abundances within the structures match closely with those of the surrounding matrix. There is also evidence of structures morphologically similar to red rain cells that may have contributed to the episode of red rain that followed within days of the meteorite fall. The new data on "fossil" diatoms provide strong evidence to support the theory of cometary panspermia.

 

 

The full article recently published in the Journal of Cosmology, along with good photos, is here:

 

http://journalofcosmology.com/JOC21/PolonnaruwaRRRR.pdf

 

This is probably the most outspoken critic of the paper:

 

 

No, Diatoms Have Not Been Found in a Meteorite

But then I read the actual paper, and guess what? Let me be delicate: It’s wrong. Really, really wrong. Way, way, way ridiculously oh-holy-wow-how-could-anyone-publish-this wrong.

 

Here's that article in full:

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/01/15/life_in_a_meteorite_claims_by_n_c_wickramasinghe_of_diatoms_in_a_meteorite.html

[Thought2Much]

The scientists that I know of don't find Journal of Cosmology to be a reputable source for anything (they find it laughable, actually; it's sort of like the Daily Mail of science journals). This leads one to wonder why if this is a credible discovery (and non-earth organisms in a meteorite would be HUGE news), why wasn't it published in a higher profile journal? It would be like news of the assassination of a world leader only appearing on one dodgy web site and not being reported on BBC or CNN.

 

<opens PDF, gets to page 2>

 

I see. It's associating the meteorite with "red rain" episodes? This red rain has occurred a number of times in India in the recent past, and was shown to contain organisms from earth, not from space.

 

Into the trash this one goes.

 

 

 

EDIT: Oh, and this meteorite was supposedly recovered on December 29th of 2012, then fully analyzed with conclusions drawn and published by January 10th of 2013? Twelve days from recovery to publication? No. No fucking way.

[Thought2Much]

OF, your edit to include the article by Phil Plait is an excellent one. He covers more bases and in greater detail than I could have as a layperson.

[Overcame Faith]

OF, your edit to include the article by Phil Plait is an excellent one. He covers more bases and in greater detail than I could have as a layperson.

 

I wanted to present this from more than one perspective so later I included the article by Phil Plait for some balance on the issue.

 

The first thing that struck me about the paper was that it was so quickly published.  The meteorite struck on December 29. 2012 and the paper was published on January 10, 2013.  Still, it would be quite something if someone ever did find convincing evidence of ET life, even if only a one-celled organism.  When that happens one day, and I suspect it will, it will change our entire perspective on life and will conclusively prove that Earth is not the center of the universe as far as life goes.

[Thought2Much]

I don't doubt that there may be meteors with fossilized organisms from Mars out there somewhere. There may also be something sort of like life that may be found in comets, but I think it's a bit unlikely. I don't know if it's a certainty that such a thing will be found, since we still don't know if life ever really took hold on Mars or not (and Mars is really the only likely source of meteors with fossilized life in them, for a number of reasons). I agree that it would be something if we found real evidence for fossilized microbes in meteors, and I would be quite excited if such evidence could be verified.

[Overcame Faith]

More:

 

Point by the author:

 

 

Different perspective from another scientist who reviewed the meteorites:

 

 

 

[Kris]

It would be really neat if something like this could be proven-- but in this case, there may have been a rush to judgement. I am very excited to see the analysis of Mar's soil yields.

[Thought2Much]

More:

 

Point by the author:

 

 

Different perspective from another scientist who reviewed the meteorites:

 

 

Well, at least now when people complain about Fox News and shoddy American journalism, I can point to this Indian network and say that it's at least as bad, if not worse, and that bad journalism is not a uniquely American phenomenon.

[LifeCycle]

There's life out there... The universe is far too vast for there not to be.

[VacuumFlux]

There's life out there... The universe is far too vast for there not to be.

 

Unfortunately, it may be too vast (and still expanding) for us to ever meet them or even find traces of them   Even if there's lots of them out there in the Milky Way. I would love to learn what they're like from trustworthy sources but feel... cheated, I guess, when someone gets my hopes up then it turns out to be all wishful thinking and bad science. Even the Earth-based arsenic thing turned out to be overeager scientists not being critical enough of their own results and publishing too soon. Ah well.

[Thought2Much]

I would love to learn what they're like from trustworthy sources but feel... cheated, I guess, when someone gets my hopes up then it turns out to be all wishful thinking and bad science.

 

Yeah, every now and again I see things like the thread title, and I get just a little hopeful. Then my hopes are always dashed when, once again, I see that it's that goddamn "Journal of Cosmology" that's the source. It's like seeing a link to some good news, and then seeing that it's World Net Daily that is the only source of the information. I want us to find evidence of extraterrestrial life, I really do. But if evidence for extraterrestrial life is ever discovered, I can virtually guarantee that it won't be based on any "work" that anyone associated with Journal of Cosmology will ever be a part of.

[Ravenstar]

The Allen meteorite from mars is still in dispute as evidence of bacterial/microbial life... and it's been studied for a very long time now.

 

There's no conclusion yet... but I suspect at least microbial life is widespread throughout the universe. I find it interesting that the studies from the space station show that some organisms from earth can survive space and even reproduce at accelerated rates. Don't have the links at the moment but I read recently that, I think it was botulism or salmonella or something like that, seemed to be okay with the cosmic radiation outside of our little protected atmosphere and gravity didn't seem t be an issue.

 

If we could get samples from a comet that would be cool, because we know comets are practically a lot of water and dust (minerals). Maybe they could get a probe to fly through a comets tail and collect some stuff.

 

If I come across the article again I will post it.

[Guest r3alchild]

There's life out there... The universe is far too vast for there not to be.

Yes and I hope its not the incubating chest bursting type.

 

[Thought2Much]

 

There's life out there... The universe is far too vast for there not to be.

Yes and I hope its not the incubating chest bursting type.

 

 

Or

.