Life is rampant throughout the universe and much it it may be carbon-based—just like life on Earth.
So claims Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Hoover came to this stunning conclusion-published in the March 2011 edition of the Journal of Cosmology, after spending more than a decade globetrotting to many of the most inhospitable regions of the planet.
Studying meteorites he’d collected from the tundra of Siberia, the bleak, ice-encrusted plains of northern Alaska, and the wastelands of Antarctica, Hoover shared his explosive discovery—perhaps the most important revelation of the new millennia—with FoxNews. <http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/05/exclusive-nasa-scientists-claims-evidence-alien-life-meteorite/>
Researching the rarest meteorites that exist—known as CI1 carbonaceous chondrites—of which only nine are known, he has found what he considers incontrovertible fossil evidence of alien bacterial life.
How he found the evidence
Hoover told FoxNews that the method he used to confirm the artifacts of life was “a very simple process.” In a sterile environment, he broke the meteorite and examined the newly fractured segments with two microscope imaging technologies: scanning-electron, and field emission electron-scanning instruments. The advanced imaging technologies permitted an intense search for traces of fossilized life.
He found the evidence. And he found more: the remains of the life embedded in the heart of the space rocks are very similar to the micro-organisms found everywhere on Earth.
Hoover told FoxNews.com:“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth. This field of study has just barely been touched—because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.”
Other scientists call the research results “shocking”…”profound”…”extraordinary”…and “unimaginable.”
“The exciting thing is that they are in many cases recognizable and can be associated very closely with the generic species here on Earth.”
Yet some of the evidence he found is exotic. Tiny lifeforms that don’t have any correlation with Earth-bound life. “There are some that are just very strange and don’t look like anything that I’ve been able to identify, and I’ve shown them to many other experts that have also come up stumped.”
Past proof of extraterrestrial life ignored
During the past 40 years, other evidence of life has been dismissed or ignored.
The famous Viking Mars probe discovered life on the surface of the Red Planet, so claims world-renowned astrobiologist Chandra Wickramasinghe. The eminent scientist recently reiterated the charge he made against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration back in 2008.
Life on the Red Planet
“The discovery of liquid water on Mars combined with earlier discoveries of organic substances in a meteorite that came from Mars, and also of methane in the Martian atmosphere all point to the existence of life—contemporary life—on the Red Planet,” the scientist asserted.
Other astronomers, exobiologists and planetary experts agree. One of the lead scientists responsible for scientific experiments conducted by the Viking probes during the 1970s—Gil Levin—has also consistently made the same claim for the record. Levin has a tendency to boil over whenever the subject is raised.
Wickramasinghe underscored his argument by adding that “I am not speaking of fossilized life but contemporary life.”
The professor of applied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Cardiff in Wales also cites the Viking experiment of 35 years ago.
The Viking evidence
“Even as early as 1976, when the two NASA space probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2, landed on Mars, experiments carried out in situ pointed strongly to the existence of active microbial life,” he explained. The experiments conducted included one specifically designed to detect the presence of microbes in the Martian soil. When the experiment was carried out and a nutrient rich liquid was spilled onto the Martian surface “…it frothed up so vigorously exuding carbon dioxide, that a positive detection of life might have been inferred.”
Despite those results, NASA chose to ignore the evidence of life. “…when the NASA scientists looked for organic material, the detritus of living organisms, around the landing site, their experiments yielded negative or ambiguous results. So NASA cautiously concluded, ‘no organics means no life detected,'” the somewhat miffed astrobiologist pointed out.
Interplanetary politics
Why would a prestigious organization like NASA withhold such world-shaking information? After all, if life is right next door, then the odds are overwhelming that life is thriving throughout the universe.
Wickramasinghe suspects politics. “I think there could be political and sociological considerations at work.” He explains that “…if life was already detected, then there is no need to spend vast sums of money to continue the search.”
A danger to Earth?
Those that believe Mars has microbial life are concerned about some projects currently on the drawing board. NASA has been pushing for a mission to collect soil samples and bring them back to Earth.
“There is a lot of scientific interest nowadays in bringing back samples of Martian soil to Earth at the cost of tens of billions of dollars, and there is a lobby that says if microbes exist on Mars we should not be doing this. It could pose a bio-hazard.”
A new or mutated type of virus was the basis of “The Andromeda Strain,” the first novel by best-seller author Michael Crichton. In the novel, an alien strain escapes and kills everyone in a town. The plot focuses on the frenzied attempt to contain the virulent virus before it can kill most of humanity.
The 2010 announcement of alien life
During the latter part of 2010, the news media rushed to report on a NASA press conference revealing arsenic-laden lifeforms scooped up at Mono Lake, California. The implications were the lifeforms were not of this Earth, but rather actual alien life that fell onto Earth from outer space.
It’s assumed that the arsenic-based strain evolved naturally because a laboratory experiment showed that phosphorous replacement with arsenic can take place. The discovery at Mono Lake is believed to be the same process as the water and soil have been heavily polluted with arsenic from years of mining operations.
So, it’s thought that the microbe mimicked the laboratory process. But what if it didn’t?
Felisa Wolfe-Simon, the NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow who made the discovery, is quoted as saying, “We know that some microbes can breathe arsenic, but what we’ve found is a microbe doing something new—building parts of itself out of arsenic. If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven’t seen yet?”
Well yes, a microbe adapting itself that way is stunning and lends credence to the hypothesis kicked around scientific circles for years that other forms of life including silicon-based life could be flourishing all through the universe as well as the carbon-based life we’re familiar with here on Earth.
But still there is that theory out there—called the panspermia theory—that has credibility and evidence to support it. The panspermia theory allows for the possibility that the Mono Lake microbes are not of this Earth.
Soon after the announcement other researchers blasted NASA for “jumping the gun” and “bad science.”
Science is conservative – it has to be
Hoover is not concerned about the fresh controversy his announcement has stirred up. He told FoxNews that it’s natural for science to hesitate before accepting new evidence. Science by its nature is conservative and has to be that way,
“A lot of times it takes a long time before scientists start changing their mind as to what is valid and what is not. I’m sure there will be many many scientists that will be very skeptical and that’s okay.”
He added, “I’ve talked with many scientists about this and no one has been able to explain.”
Scientists pouring over the published report agree that more research must be done before they will be willing to jump on the “alien life” bandwagon. Future research—and possible confirmation—will be needed to reach “a confirmed signature of life.”
Hoover looks forward to the additional research. He’s quite confident that he’s accomplished the breakthrough of the ages: the verification and proof of alien life.
If that verification comes, Dr. Richard B. Hoover may well be remembered 1,000 years from now.
