Algae-like biological entities were found in outer space in July 2013 by Sheffield University researchers, who collected the little critters on sterile studs of a balloon launched not far from Liverpool, UK. Researchers believe the entities did not originate on Earth. Likely source: comets. Panspermia theory of life origin thus gets a second wind.
MORE BIOLOGICAL ENTITIES FROM THE STRATOSPHERE INCLUDING A DIATOM FRAGMENT-FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR A SPACE ORIGIN – Journal of Cosmology
Milton Wainwright, Christopher E. Rose, Alexander J. Baker and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe
Details of stratosphere-isolated biomorphs are given, including a fragment of a diatom frustule and an inorganic particle-rich mass containing biological filaments. We argue that this mass which is around 300 micron in size is, like the other biological entities shown, too large to have been carried from Earth to the stratosphere. As a result, we conclude that the biological entities arrived from space, probably from comets, and their existence in the stratosphere provides prima facie evidence in support of the Hoyle-Wickramasing he theory of cometary panspermia.
Location of balloon launch site
