The panspermia theory says that microbes could be transported through the galaxy in asteroids, meteors or comets, and may even help explain the beginnings of life on Earth. A new study suggests it’s s also possible that microscopic life could have been blasted off the Earth multiple times in the ancient past, potentially even escaping our solar system. Read more. Image via Astrobiology at NASA.
Could microbes on Earth have been ejected into space by asteroid impacts billions of years ago, and escaped the solar system? Theoretical physicist Abraham Loeb makes the case for a reverse kind of panspermia, that is, the idea that life exists throughout space and was carried to Earth by comets. Read more.
In a naming ceremony this week, NASA gave the distant Kuiper Belt object formerly known as 2014 MU69 - later known as Ultima Thule - yet another new name. The new name is Arrokoth. Read more.
Will you see thousands of meteors during the 2019 Leonid meteor shower? Doubtful. But you might see a good sprinkling of meteors before dawn November 17 and 18. Read more.
View larger. | Craig Knight took this photo of a small aurora over Esjan, a mountain in southwest Iceland, on Wednesday night. You can see part of the Big Dipper at the top.
