Aliens could hitch a ride to other planets on meteors, a new study warns

The search for life in the universe has fascinated people for countless years, and now new research could change the way scientists search for extraterrestrial life forms.

Rather than changing where experts look for potential alien life, the new research is all about changing what they look for.

It all has to do with the idea of ​​’panspermia’ – a fringe theory that suggests life forms can move from planet to planet by ‘hitchhiking’ on meteors (through Living Science).

Now the new research has been published in the preprint database arXiv and put forward by astronomers Harrison B. Smith and Lana Sinapayen, has not been peer-reviewed and assumes that panspermia is possible. However, the consequences can be serious.

If panspermia is possible, it means scientists can theoretically narrow their search for alien life, even if they don’t know specifically what they’re looking for.

This could be important, as NASA has identified more than 5,000 exoplanets that could potentially host life in the universe. Searching for these exoplanets individually is a process that can take years and years.

Furthermore, we don’t really know what form might exist out there in the universe, and we only know of one planet – Earth – that supports life.

Instead, the astronomers have proposed a new theory based on panspermia, which suggests that life could start on one planet and then spread to others via meteorites.

Fundamentally, this approach could completely change what scientists would be looking for.

Just as life on Earth has changed conditions on Earth and in our planet’s atmosphere, including adding more oxygen, life forms would change the properties of an exoplanet. Furthermore, if life is indeed capable of panspermia, the researchers argue that it would try to make the same changes on every planet it encountered on its journey.

According to the new study, approaching the search for life in this way could mean experts could potentially find clusters of planets close together with similar characteristics – and this could in turn be an indicator of potential life.

Meanwhile, it comes as new research suggests bacteria containing purple pigments could hold the key to locating alien life.

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