Panspermia tested; dark matters resolved (but more new questions raised than answered); JWST continues forward (template layers of sun shield and near infrared spectrograph). "Well, Dina Pasini and others at the University of Kent went about answering this by taking frozen samples of Nannochloropsis oculata, a type of single-celled ocean-dwelling algae, and tried to test the conditions which early life would have had to survive if it did indeed travel through space. Using a two-stage light gas gun, which can accelerate objects up to very high speeds, Pasini fired frozen pellets of Nannochloropsis into water, and tested the samples to see if any had survived. "As you might expect, increasing the speed of impact does increase the proportion of algae that die, but even at 6.93 kilometres per second, a small proportion survived." In addition, the other problems faced by panspermia might not be not insurmountable either. Organisms can hid inside ice and rocks to hide from radiation, and the heat of entry to the atmosphere might only heat a thin layer around the outside. Says Tony Darnell, "This research suggests that panspermia, while certainly not proven, is not impossible either."
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 22:21:03 +0000
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