“Life might actually survive being ejected from one planet and moving to another,” said Dr. K.T. Ramesh. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30268/microbes-survi…-planets-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30268/microbes-survi…-planets-2)

Can life transport between planets from impacts? This is what a recent study published in PNAS Nexus hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated how microbes could have come to Earth via asteroid impacts on planets like Mars. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand how life started on Earth and other worlds throughout the cosmos.

For the study, the researchers conducted a series of laboratory experiments where they subjected microorganisms to space-like conditions, specifically extreme pressure changes. The goal of the study was to ascertain the survival rate and overall response to the extreme environment, which could help determine if microorganisms could survive the extreme vacuum of space during a journey from Mars to Earth. This is because meteorites on Earth have been discovered to have originated from large impacts Mars, flinging chunks of rocks into deep space for millions of years, and crashing on Earth.

In the end, the researchers were surprised to find that the microorganisms in their experiments could survive the harshness of outer space, potentially even being able to travel from planet-to-planet. Potentially, if a large impact occurred on Mars, any microorganisms that existed there could survive the long and harsh journey to Earth.

Somewhere, out in the cold depths of space, there is a space rock that could destroy a large chunk of life on Earth. Is this fate inevitable? Could we find a way to stop it, or will we eventually suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs? And should this existential threat be keeping you up at night? Here’s what we know.

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was at least 10 kilometres across, big enough to cause megatsunamis, ignite enormous forest fires and darken the skies the world over. Asteroids of that size are estimated to hit Earth about every 60 million years, based on the planet’s crater record. For the next size class down, asteroids about 1 kilometre across, estimates suggest they hit Earth about every million years, and the most recent one was about 900,000 years ago. Those numbers are enough to make you nervous.

But one of the things that sets humanity apart from the dinosaurs is our ability to look out into space and interpret what we see there. Naturally, researchers around the world have used this ability to attempt to learn how many asteroids are out there and what proportion of them are on trajectories that could be dangerous.

Image: angel_nt/Getty Images.

The dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid, but does that mean we risk suffering the same fate — and should you be worried about the possibility? Leah Crane sets the matter straight.

By Leah Crane