New bacteria species found on edge of space

I believe we are going to see more and more of this news from now on.
The ultraviolet radiation was a big problem to extraterrestrial life but it looks like that's not true anymore.
If these bacterias can survive ultraviolet radiation then they can live anywhere in the space. And life can exist everywhere in the universe.

Read more

It was once thought that UV radiation would be a problem, but they have known it was not since the early days of the space program. Microbial life found on meteor rocks and even on parts of the returned capsules after going up into orbit proved there are bacterial life forms up there.

Bacteria has a neat way of adapting very quickly to its surroundings.


Cheers!!!!

Good. The acclimatization begins. ALL HAIL THE FAKE UFO INVASION!!!

I found this disclaimer in the article to be fascinating:

"While the present study does not conclusively establish the extraterrestrial origin of microorganisms, it does provide positive encouragement to continue the work in our quest to explore the origin of life," the ISRO said.

The "while it does not conclusively establish" is very strongly worded, actually! My first assumption would be that these bacteria are specializations of other lower-altitude species, and developed from them. But that statement seems to indicate something else entirely is considered more probable.

It would be very interesting to see a genetic comparison between these and closly related species - what was the direction of divergence? Do ground-based bacteria contain latent genes that are active in these new varieties?

Scientists do start to look at the possibilities again that life might come from space.
That it was planted on earth as a seeds from the bombardment of meterites during earths early stage in life.

Scientists thought of this before but threw it into the trash can later on since scientists didn't believe that bacteria or any other microbial life would survive the high intense heat that would surround the meteorite on it's way down through the atmosphere.

But later on we found out that life don't always need the same criteria as humans and most other lifeforms.
This became clear when we found life around the underwater volcanoes
that spurt out all that hot hot sulphur acid ( or whatever it is it spurted out ).
Where other lifeforms would die by the hot sulphur, these creatures survived.
When this was discovered, the idea of life coming from space all started again, and also, we now had pretty good and solid evidence that life does not always have to have the same "non-hostile" environment as WE require to survive thus decreasing the chances of us being alone in the universe.

This is a really interesting thread, good find pterra

This should be a strong reminder to all that we may think we have conquered the land, but the upper skies and the Oceans are still relatively unknown. We have no idea what is on this planet, i think we need to stop jumping out for space exploration and just spend a little bit more time here on earth, mainly the Oceans. Can we all remember when they found a Frill shark a short while back ? We thought that they we're extinct until some one saw one near Japan, apparently they are not extinct they just live in the very deep water now. We need to start figuring out what is on this planet before we go finding what is on other planets.

Fox

Originally posted by pterra
I believe we are going to see more and more of this news from now on.
The ultraviolet radiation was a big problem to extraterrestrial life but it looks like that's not true anymore.
If these bacterias can survive ultraviolet radiation then they can live anywhere in the space. And life can exist everywhere in the universe.

Read more

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the bacteria was found in the outer atmosphere, not "the edge of space", unless that is what you mean. Your heading is a bit misleading. These organisms are entirely terrestrial, new species or not. New species are found on a regular basis in the sea. No aliens here.

Winds aloft can account for the bacteria. As you know, bacteria can be quite lightweight, and easily blown about on particles of dust. Dust particles are subject to upward thrusts of air, such as cumulonimbus thunderheads. Water sources in the clouds can keep things alive on their way up.

The edge of space is at 60 miles, and that's a pretty good run.

Maybe what we are seeing is a venting from the space station of some dehydrated waste material (hah).

Anyway, the upper stratosphere find ends at 22 miles, hardly in space. Just more sensationalism over nothing.

[edit on 18-3-2009 by Jim Scott]

Originally posted by RFBurns
It was once thought that UV radiation would be a problem, but they have known it was not since the early days of the space program. Microbial life found on meteor rocks and even on parts of the returned capsules after going up into orbit proved there are bacterial life forms up there.

Bacteria has a neat way of adapting very quickly to its surroundings.


Cheers!!!!

If that is the case, and the universe has existed for a while could these not end up growing to huge sizes?

Great find and I think it's a no brainer.

Why do people assume that life can only originate on earth in this vast universe? I think it's kind of a silly notion and we should be enlightened enough as a species to accept these things.

Of course they can't conclusivly know the extra-terrestrial origin because we have not explored all of space. It might be impossible to know where they originated from.

I think finding liquid water on Mars and NASA also saying signs of microbial life are on Mars along with things like this tells us that extra-terrestrial microbial life is abundant in the universe and we might be extra-terrestrials who came to this planet.

I actually think this kind of obvious. It's a big universe and alot of space and why we have to make life special to earth is beyond me.

reply to post by pterra
I've been interested in this study for a while. There's a pdf online that I saved around Christmas. The jist of it is available here..

“ ...Organisms replicating at 300 degrees Celsius and showing this kind of autofluorescence are currently unknown to exist on earth, which is again an indication supporting the view that these cells are possibly extraterrestrial.” - Godfrey Louis, Ph.D., Physics, Cochin University, Kerala, India

Louis is not as assertive in his claims as people like to imply on various websites. If anyone's interested they could also look at Wickramasinghe and Hoyle. Louis and Wickramasinghe are looking for evidence of modern panspermia. It's a controversial subject with serious detractors, but interesting nevertheless. They are roundly dismissed in many areas of science and SETI, however they are actively looking for evidence to support the theories. What more can they do?

Thank you for posting this piece of information, Keep pushing the boundaries of what we expect is possible and then the world looks that little bit different. We can argue for and against, let us just take this at face value, new species, upper atmosphere resistant to uv light, thats good enough for me.

Star and Flag

I found a another article here. and one more here.

[edit on 18-3-2009 by bharata]

Originally posted by RFBurns
Microbial life found on meteor rocks

If you mean meteorite ALH84001, then no "microbial life" was found on or in it, but there is some evidence that there may have been.

The evidence is far from conclusive though, and as far as I'm aware, there are no other examples where other natural meteorites have been found to have any other signs that might point to some form of life thats not from earth having come into contact with it.

Originally posted by RFBurns
and even on parts of the returned capsules after going up into orbit proved there are bacterial life forms up there.

It proves that bacteria are good at hitching rides (as well as tough), but not that they were originally picked up "in orbit". Anything that starts off on the ground, is bound to pick up ay least some bacteria along the way, no matter what precautions you take.

Edit to add: Heck, if a bat can make it past security, then what hope do we have of stopping every bacteria that is blown into the path of a launch vehicle?

As far as I know they have all been confirmed as terrestrial species, and would have been shielded from intense UV/heat since they were not on the surface but in small spaces that provided shelter.

If you know otherwise, I'd be very interested to see a link if you have one?

[edit on 18-3-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

Originally posted by Akezzon
Scientists thought of this before but threw it into the trash can later on since scientists didn't believe that bacteria or any other microbial life would survive the high intense heat that would surround the meteorite on it's way down through the atmosphere.

What scientists did not realize back then is that heat was never the problem.

Anything on the surface of a meteoroid will get stripped away and vaporised along with the surface of the meteoroid in a process called ablation. In doing so, the removed particles also carry heat away with them, just like when we sweat, we remove heat from ourselves by evaporation. It's a very similar process in a reentering body.

Also, because the meteoroid has probably spent the last few decades-millions of years in space, which is a very cold place, the meteoroid would be frozen to the core.

Then there is the entry into the atmosphere itself, which is usually only a matter a of a few seconds, during which there is enough velocity to keep the object luminous. After this, the meteoroid is no longer generating any heat, but instead, the atmosphere (usually around 40+ km even for meteors that may be up to the size of a truck) is actively cooling it down.

Taking all of these factors into account, it's fairly easy to see what heat would not be a problem for a microbe buried deep within a rock. Only the surface of a meteor experiences any heat, and even that is usually very brief.

reply to post by RFBurns


I can't find anything about bacteria being found on the exterior of returning capsules. Can you provide any kind of a reference?

Originally posted by pterra
If these bacterias can survive ultraviolet radiation then they can live anywhere in the space. And life can exist everywhere in the universe.

Saying that they could live anywhere just because they can withstand UV is a bit of a stretch. It's a bit like saying, because a crab can survive on a beach and out of water for a while, it can be found anywhere, but there are other things that a crab needs in order to live, so you will not find them living in inland deserts for example.

Having said that, there is no reason why life could not overcome some of the problems associated with living in space, we just are not sure yet. I have always said that life is tough and adaptable, and it's no surprise that life can be found in our atmosphere. I would expect it to be found in space too, but there is no solid proof yet. This does however strengthen the argument that life can survive the harshness of the space environment.

[edit on 18-3-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

eldard is completely right guys. This whole thread is ridiculous. There is absolutely no way other life exists in the universe, because that would mean the earth isn't the center of the universe. Oxford University's recent possibly discovery of there being at least 300 billion trillion livable plants in the known universe was a hoax made by the evil scientists bent on fooling us all into not believing the pope's word is that of god's. This post is not sarcasm.

( For those of you who are slow and about to reply to me with anger, yes, this post IS sarcasm. )

( For those of you who believe the pope is the closest thing to god on earth. Please, be angry. =) )