Polonnaruwa meteorite shows life in outer space Most important find in 500 years

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by DeeCee, Jan 14, 2013.

  1. DeeCee Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,793
    Apologies if posted previously.

    "Polonnaruwa meteorite shows life in outer space
    Most important find in 500 years"


    http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=70371


    [video=youtube;NF_TOtgZoS0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_TOtgZoS0[/video]

    Also a pdf from http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Polonnaruwa-meteorite.pdf

    Pdf does not work for me. I suspect it might be quite large.

    Opinions?

    "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2013
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  3. Rhaedas Valued Senior Member

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    Two issues come to mind.

    How do you fossilize without pressure?

    They ruled out contamination from the impact area, but they have not ruled out it being ejecta from an impact on Earth long ago that has made its way back here.
     
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  5. DeeCee Valued Senior Member

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    I had not thought of number two.
    Thanks.
    To be fair the meteorite may have been part of something much bigger a long time back but I understand that Wickramasinghe has made such claims before.
     
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  7. Walter L. Wagner Cosmic Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    diatoms exist in free water on earth, in great abundance. there are rocky layers of them in many surface areas, such as Nevada, etc. if they are on 'meteorites', then ergo they were ejected ages ago by asteroidal strike, and have fallen anew to earth.
     
  8. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Sixteen Days

    We're going to have to see where this goes; the Journal of Cosmology apparently has a somewhat controversial reputation. It would be quite literally the coolest thing in human history if this really was extraterrestrial life, but I'm uncertain how you can retrieve the meteorite in Sri Lanka, get it to Cardiff, perform the analysis, write the article, see it through peer review, and publish, all over the course of sixteen days.
     
  9. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Yeah. I'd reserve judgement on this "find" until it's been independently studied - and especially the geology of the thing confirmed to be *not* of earthly origin.
     
  10. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" let us wait for independent review.
     
  11. brucep Valued Senior Member

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    Me to. Why did he publish in a 'fringe' [crank] journal when it's the most important discovery in 500_earth years?
     
  12. lalalandscape Registered Senior Member

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    41
    "There is also evidence of structures morphologically similar to red rain cells that may have contributed to the episode of red rain that followed within days of the meteorite fall."

    Yeah. So in other words there is also evidence it may be of Earthly origins. Cool.
     

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