Aliens could travel to Earth on meteors, new research says

If you’re used to watching science fiction movies that depict the arrival of aliens on Earth in floating spacecraft, it’s time to unlearn all that. A new scientific theory suggests that aliens may arrive on Earth via meteors and that we may not be aware of their arrival. Researchers have now published a plan detailing how such phenomena can be detected. Panspermia, a fringe theory, suggests that alien life could spread from one planet to another by hitching a ride on meteors. Now that approximately 5,000 exoplanets have been identified outside our solar system, it is speculated that these distant worlds offer the best prospects for harboring life forms other than our own, which, if they exist, could use meteor transport to move between planets .

Perhaps the biggest challenge is identifying these life forms that traveled on meteors. Unlike the humanoid forms depicted in science fiction films, aliens can look completely different from the carbon-based life forms on Earth. However, new research could help us detect alien life even if we don’t know what we’re looking for, LiveScience reports.

Two scientists have drawn up a road map that focuses not on the appearance of extraterrestrial life, but on its potential impact on Earth. Of paramount importance, extraterrestrial life could possess the ability to disrupt Earth’s natural balance as they attempt to terraform our planet to make atmospheric conditions similar to those of their home planet.

Researchers can assess this by conducting a statistical analysis that examines a lone planet apart from a group of planets with similar characteristics. If these individual planets show similarities to those within the cluster, it suggests that alien life may have visited and initiated colonization, or at least that unusual events are taking place in space. This approach also facilitates the identification of potentially new life forms, without assuming any specifics about the operation or functionalities of such life forms.

This research has yet to be peer-reviewed. The research has its limitations because the research requires a large amount of information about exoplanets. NASA has confirmed that there are at least 5,000 identified exoplanets, and this number is constantly growing.