Oh, yeah, and speaking of life
Mar. 7th, 2011 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusI did a bit more research into the meteoroid that may or may not have cyanobacteria fossils in it.
From what I can tell, based on what other scientists, and NASA, are saying:
1. There is considerable disagreement on whether what Dr. Hoover found were actually bacteria fossils, or formations that looked like them and had similar (but not identical) chemical composition.
2. Dr. Hoover seems to be a legitimate and respected researcher. So, while other scientists disagree with his findings, they do not fall under the category of crank, or pseudo-science.
3. The Journal of Cosmology may be a legitimate, though in general not a well-respected, scientific journal.
4. This is NOT the same as the suspected fossils found on the Mars rock in 1996 (wow, was it that long ago??) - that was a different kind of meteor altogether, though the results were similarly inconclusive.
5. Scientists will continue to study and argue about the CI1 carbonaceous meteorites over the next several years, and perhaps some sort of consensus may be reached. Eventually. But what's really needed is to find either more asteroids, or similar fossils or living bacteria by one of our space probes. Fortunately, we've got a couple out searching now, so we may have a "final" answer within just a few years.
So, it could be a while. But, possibly, less than a single decade, let alone plural.
And that will be very, very, very awesome.
From what I can tell, based on what other scientists, and NASA, are saying:
1. There is considerable disagreement on whether what Dr. Hoover found were actually bacteria fossils, or formations that looked like them and had similar (but not identical) chemical composition.
2. Dr. Hoover seems to be a legitimate and respected researcher. So, while other scientists disagree with his findings, they do not fall under the category of crank, or pseudo-science.
3. The Journal of Cosmology may be a legitimate, though in general not a well-respected, scientific journal.
4. This is NOT the same as the suspected fossils found on the Mars rock in 1996 (wow, was it that long ago??) - that was a different kind of meteor altogether, though the results were similarly inconclusive.
5. Scientists will continue to study and argue about the CI1 carbonaceous meteorites over the next several years, and perhaps some sort of consensus may be reached. Eventually. But what's really needed is to find either more asteroids, or similar fossils or living bacteria by one of our space probes. Fortunately, we've got a couple out searching now, so we may have a "final" answer within just a few years.
So, it could be a while. But, possibly, less than a single decade, let alone plural.
And that will be very, very, very awesome.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-08 08:22 am (UTC)Some of the other criticisms that don't really hold up are:
1. There's no nitrogen. This is true, but not all cyanobacteria fossils of earthly origin hold nitrogen either, so it's not a deal-killer that an extra-terrestrial one doesn't.
2. Cyanobacteria need both sunlight and water to survive. Could be. On a comet, though, you'll actually find plenty of both - comets largely composed of ice. On earth, simple life has been found to live inside ice, without the need for liquid water around it. (I'm not sure how active it is, or if it has to be thawed to come "back to life", but there have been living single-celled organisms found in Antarctic ice).
And, of course, plenty of sunlight in space.
The journal itself is still a problem for me. I'm not sure why he decided to publish there instead of Science (as he's done in the past), or something equally prestigious.
But, like I said, time will tell. It will probably be years before we have a definitive answer. (How long was it between the discovery of the first Paisley coprolite and this last Great Basin conference?)