{"id":502758,"date":"2026-03-04T07:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/502758\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:22:08","slug":"did-life-hitch-a-ride-to-earth-scientists-smashed-the-living-crap-out-of-microbes-to-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/502758\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Life Hitch a Ride to Earth? Scientists Smashed the Living Crap Out of Microbes to Find Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tiniest life forms are also among Earth\u2019s toughest, from near-invincible tardigrades<\/a> to extremophilic microbes that thrive near volcanoes and hydrothermal vents. But could some of these itsy-bitsy creatures survive a journey through space tucked inside an asteroid\u2014and then take root on another world? A wild new experiment suggests the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

In a PNAS Nexus<\/a> study published today, Johns Hopkins University researchers discuss the results of a microbe-launching experiment to test the lithopanspermia hypothesis<\/a>. This well-known theory dares to suggest that life arrived on this planet from elsewhere, in the form of microbes hitching rides aboard asteroids or comets. To test this theory, the astrobiologists behind the new study created an apparatus to replicate how much pressure and physical stress a microorganism would have to endure while riding on an asteroid long enough to reach another planet.<\/p>\n

This meant subjecting microbes to minimum pressures equivalent to ten times those of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of Earth\u2019s oceans\u2014which, for the record, the microbes survived. Truly, they \u201cproved very hard to kill,\u201d the researchers recalled in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A different set of rules <\/p>\n

To be clear, extremophiles aren\u2019t invincible\u2014they can definitely be killed<\/a>. Still, extremophiles are remarkable in that they survive and enjoy conditions that, generally speaking, kill most life forms, such as extreme temperatures, pressures, or radiation exposure, or conditions without much sunlight or oxygen.<\/p>\n

It might be more accurate to say that extremophiles simply require a different set of resources to thrive\u2014an idea with key parallels to the search for extraterrestrial life. So understandably, extremophiles have been a vital part of astrobiological research<\/a> on the origin of life, both on and off Earth.<\/p>\n

Stronger than steel, literally <\/p>\n

Then again, the microbes in this particular experiment, Deinococcus radiodurans<\/a>, may as well have been invincible. For their test, the researchers simulated the pressure of an asteroid strike and ejection from Mars by firing high-speed projectiles at the microbes, sandwiched between metal plates.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where things get wild. The projectiles hit the plates at speeds up to 300 miles per hour (483 kilometers per hour), which adds up to about 1 to 3 gigapascals of pressure. And from all of this, the only thing that \u201cdied\u201d was the steel plates, which eventually fell apart from so much slamming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected it to be dead at that first pressure,\u201d admitted Lily Zhao, the study\u2019s lead author and a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. \u201cWe started shooting it faster and faster. We kept trying to kill it, but it was really hard to kill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the microbes brushed off nearly every test at 1.4 gigapascals of pressure. Increased pressure did cause some internal damage and ruptured membranes here and there, but they were, for all intents and purposes, alive.<\/p>\n

\"MicrobesAn image of the microbes before and after the pressure tests. Credit: Lisa Orye\/Johns Hopkins University Extraterrestrial origins? <\/p>\n

In interviews with Johns Hopkins and The New York Times<\/a>, the authors suggested that the earliest lifeforms may have originated from Martian microbes \u201cplanet-hopping\u201d aboard an Earth-bound asteroid. Of course, the researchers stressed that, for now, these questions remain in the realm of stimulating hypothetical thought experiments.<\/p>\n

More importantly, the experiments demonstrate that it\u2019s not totally impossible for life to spread between planetary bodies. For future space missions, this would warrant greater caution with regard to the potential \u201cexchange\u201d of life between Earth and other planets like Mars to avoid contamination.<\/p>\n

Some food for thought <\/p>\n

Of course, the study isn\u2019t without its limitations. It\u2019s a simulation\u2014a compelling and fascinating one, sure\u2014but with limited implications for what really happens to microbes during and after asteroid impacts. The researchers also note that various factors regarding the composition or trajectory of each asteroid may result in different reactions or survivability rates. Lastly, the experiment focused on just one type of extremophile, so the team says it plans to expand to other known extremophiles for future investigations.<\/p>\n

In the end, the lithopanspermia hypothesis remains unproven. But you have to admit that the idea of teeny bacteria outlasting steel plates is so impressive that it\u2019s almost ridiculous. And if that\u2019s how tenacious life can get, maybe the evidence to prove this theory isn\u2019t far out of reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tiniest life forms are also among Earth\u2019s toughest, from near-invincible tardigrades to extremophilic microbes that thrive near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6949,79163,177673,196,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-502758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-asteroids","9":"tag-astrobiology","10":"tag-extremophiles","11":"tag-mars","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}