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Last Updated: Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 10:58 GMT
Searching for 'our alien origins'
By Andrew Thompson
BBC Horizon

Chandra Wickramasinghe   Image: BBC
Dr Wickramasinghe thinks life could have originated in space
In July 2001, a mysterious red rain started falling over a large area of southern India.





His remarkable work has set in motion a chain of events with scientists around the world debating the origin of these mysterious cells.

The main reason why Dr Louis's ideas have not been immediately laughed out of court is because they tie in with a theory promoted by two UK scientists ever since the 1960s.

Space qualified

The late Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe have been the champions of "Panspermia", the idea that life on Earth originated on another planet.

They speculate that life was first brought here on the back of a comet. Over the last decade, Panspermia is being taken ever more seriously.

The US space agency (Nasa) is now increasingly interested in searching for extra-terrestrial life.

Bacteria seem to me to be born space travellers
Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe
A new robotic submarine is being developed to explore the oceans of one of Jupiter's moons. This submarine is on test at the moment in a lake in Texas.

Finding life elsewhere in the Solar System would be a vital bolster to the Panspermia theory.

Another section of Nasa is devoted to the study of bacteria found on Earth that can survive extreme conditions.

Finding these types of bacteria makes it more likely that micro-organism could survive the hardships of travelling through space on the back of a meteoroid.

Professor Wickramasinghe explained: "Bacteria have got to endure the extreme cold of space, the vacuum of space, ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays, X-rays.

"That sounds like a tall order but bacteria do that. From what we know survival out in space is more or less ensured. Bacteria seem to me to be born space travellers."

From another place




Animation of Planet Earth   Image: BBC
Bacteria might survive the journey through space

"Before I came I had grave doubts as to whether the red rain was really an indication of life coming from space; new life coming from space," he said.

"But on reflection and after talking to Godfrey, I think I would now fairly firmly believe that it did represent an invasion of microbes from space."

Many scientists remain highly sceptical, however, but if Wickramasinghe and Louis are correct it will be the strongest evidence so far that the theory of Panspermia might be true.

It also raises the intriguing possibility that if life first originated on another planet then it must mean all Earth organisms, including humans, evolved from alien life.

Horizon - We Are The Aliens is broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday 14 November at 2100 GMT

Earth could seed Titan with life
18 Mar 06 |  Science/Nature
Inter-world life transport argued
10 Dec 03 |  Science/Nature
Comets could have seeded life on Earth
05 Apr 01 |  Science/Nature
Coloured rain falls on Kerala
30 Jul 01 |  South Asia


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