Isn't it thought that life began when some ' life stuff' hitched a ride on an asteroid and was planted here when it crashed ?



There is life elsewhere..I firmly believe it so (in my opinion)..there's just too many stars with too many planets out there for there to not be life.



I don't believe life elsewhere is rare..I suspect it's very common ...(in my opinion)







From what I have heard, amino acids could not have formed in early Earth's atmosphere. But I think it was in the '60s that a meteorite was found containing amino acids, and I know at some point meteorites have been discovered which contained water. From my understanding, the general consensus is that both water and amino acids arrived on Earth via meteorites.I have also heard that DNA and RNA reaminatizes in a relatively short period of time.... so perhaps the amino acids in the meteorites is actually the remnants of DNA or RNA. I take a very Copernican view to life; I don't think life is rare, I think the Universe is probably filled with it. I suspect that there is possibly an aspect of the electromagnetic force and the unique element carbon which encourages life to develop. Perhaps carbon nanotube production is actually evidence of that force.... from what I have heard all we do is put a catalyst with the carbon and it arranges itself into highly accurate structures; seems kinda similar to life, IMHO.But it seems to me, that if life on Earth did originate elsewhere... we have a few different possibilities as to how it came here.1. A life sustaining planet(s) undergoes some catastrophic event which sends it hurtling through space, where eventually it crashes into Earth and seeds it with life, or the components for life.2. Alien life decided Earth was a candidate for terraforming, and did so, adding amino acids, water, organic carbon, photosynthesizing life, etc.3. Meteorites dropped off the water and amino acids, perhaps even basic life.... then aliens discovered it ~750 million years ago and took advantage to seed it with more complicated life (in order to stock the planet with an abundant supply of fossil fuels from the decay of large animals).4. Alien life developed, realized they were "renting" the planet... learned that faster than light travel is impossible... decided the only way to allow life to survive was to "seed" big hunks of rock and send them hurtling through space to hopefully spawn life elsewhere. Not quite as nice an answer as actually sparing the species, but perhaps better than doing nothing but burn up as the sun goes red giant.The interesting thing about the idea of aliens terraforming planets, and some of those developing life which then goes on to terraform planets.... is that eventually the percentage of planets with abiogenesis instead of being terraformed should be far less than the percentage with terraforming as the source of life. That seems to me to mean that it could actually be highly probable that Earth was terraformed, since we are such newcomers to the Universe.BenV, thanks, I have the podcast downloaded and I will be sure to check it out today [