How life on earth came to be is always a very interesting, and controversial topic.

Everyone seems to have their own opinion, and their own theory. Everyone believes what they say is right, yet there are some theories that simply cannot be. I want to focus today on a theory called Panspermia, which is the term used to describe exogenesis as the origin of life on earth. Originating from Ancient Greek; Pan means all , and Sperma means seed , which is a very literal and accurate description of Panspermia. Panspermia is literally the theory of an All Seed , theorizing that life from earth and other life; all can be traced back to one planet, or a few select planets, seeding planets with its gift, and then spreading from all of these planets, on and on and on. First proposed by Greek Philosopher Anaxagoras, it claimed that life is everywhere, and we owe our existence to foreign lifeforms, and microbes. This has been since its inception a very controversial, and in my opinion very misguided theory. There are two types of Panspermia theories; one which I believe is possible, and one which I believe is definitely not possible. The first type is Weak Panspermia, or Pseudo-Pasnpermia, which is the theory that lifeforms didn t arrive from outside this earth, but organic compounds such as amino acids did, which added to the already mixing, and churning vat of compounds on earth, to jumpstart life as we know it through history. I believe that this is a valid theory, because it has evidence to support it, as there have been meteorites found that contain amino acids, which is a key building block of life. This however only proves that organic compounds exist not only just on Earth. It cannot prove that the acids did in fact spark life, and without it life wouldn t be like it is today. With that being pointed out, this theory is still valid, and may very well be true. The second and not possible type is called Basic Panspermia. Basic panspermia is the theory that lifeforms did come to earth to spark life, whether it was bacteria, or real intelligent beings. There are three forms of Direct Panspermia: Naked, Directed, and Litho. Naked Panspermia is where the organism travels by itself from another world to earth, to contribute to life today. Directed Panspermia is the form where an intelligent lifeform purposely sent itself, or other organisms via a method of transportation to create or add to life on earth. The last form, Litho-Panspermia is panspermia via asteroid, where an asteroid originating from a different place, brings life to earth. Strong Panspermia is a very specific sub-theory of Basic Panspermia where the living organism that is theorized in Direct Panspermia to have visited earth was theorized to have only been microorganisms that inserted genes/DNA into earth originated lifeforms, in order to advance evolution, and give positive or needed traits to earth organisms. Believers of Panspermia support this theory because the origin of Eukaryotic cells seem to be very vague, and may have just appeared out of nowhere, and the fact that Darwinian theory has wholes. They claim that the theory based on random mutations is flawed, as it takes 10500 tries to produce one useful protein, and we as humans need one to two thousand of these proteins, and there for too many mutations, than the timeframe of evolution allows. So, they claim that organisms came already pre-

evolved to some degree to earth, or that organisms came and lent some of their proteins and genes to organisms on earth to speed up the evolutionary process. Naked Panspermia is very unlikely, because for that to happen the organism must first be able to live for the very lengthy time in space needed for an organism to reach earth. During this period it is bombarded with cosmic rays, UV rays, protons, gamma rays, and many other of these harmful rays that kill living organisms. Also, this organism must survive the entry into the atmosphere which can include extreme heat, speed, friction, impact, but also most importantly the big change in temperature, and pressure, that is lethal to organisms as demonstrated when a SCUBA diver comes to the surface to quickly. Litho-Panspermia is similar to Naked Panspermia in terms of being invalid, but also contains probability problems, such as the fact that only 1 in 200 Billion asteroids will find a planet suitable for life, and even less with find earth, and even less will be big enough to survive the impact, and even less will contain organisms, so when all of this is factored into the story, the chances of this actually happening, and in the right time-frame becomes minisculely small. In addition to that, the asteroids must also be quite big, as in space organisms need at least 3 meters of rock on all sides to survive the harmful radiation bombardment, and still when the asteroid begins to disintegrate on re-entry, it must still provide enough shielding to protect the organisms from the extreme temperatures. The same problems also apply to Litho, as it does to Naked, as the Organisms must survive for a very long time, and also will experience potentially extreme pressure changes from outer space to pressurized ground. In addition to that, many meteors, do not survive intact, even if it makes it to the ground, as the force at which the meteorite hits to ground is enough to blow apart the meteor, and consequently blow apart the organisms. Lastly the Directed Panspermia is the most controversial, and hence in my opinion the most improbable of them all. To prove it improbable, let us assume the fact that evolution does not give us enough time to properly explain the complicated life-forms that exist on earth today claimed by Panspermia believers to be true. Then Directed Panspermia is definitely not the key to explain the evolutionary holes. So, if it takes 10500 mutations to make one useful protein, and us as intelligent beings need one to two thousand of these proteins, then we can assume that other intelligent beings out there may need roughly the same number. So, if we add together the time it takes for Directed Panspermia to be possible, from the inception of life on another planet, and the gradual development, with the mutations, and the formation of prokaryotic organisms, to more and more complicated organism until intelligent life can be formed. Then this life has to develop skills, and knowledge, and then form civilization, and then slowly development the necessary advanced skills to create such a craft or rocket to be able to carry organisms there, and still keep them alive during the time it takes to get there, and develop on earth. Then you have to let life on earth evolve, and progress until present day, will theoretically take up more time, and be even more flawed than if we accept Darwin s evolution theory as true. However, we must remind ourselves that the 10500 tries is probability, and life on earth may have simply had extraordinary luck, in mutation of useful proteins, and therefore allowing life to develop quicker than probability dictates.

But, still no matter where in the universe it is, life still had to develop somewhere, in the same process or similar as it did on earth, so why couldn t it have been earth, could it not have been earth spreading life to other planets, other worlds? I don t believe in that but if you believe in Panspermia, than why isn t Exogenesis from earth a theory? But, the most important question Pansepermia should answer, as all origin of life theories should is where did life come from?