This looks to be a huge story, the first evidence of extraterrestrial life, if it holds up. I would remind readers that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence“. This needs to be confirmed by others in the science community before it can be taken seriously.
This is from a recent meteorite find in December 2012. A large fire ball was seen by a large number of people in Sri Lanka on December 29th 2012, during that episode a large meteorite disintegrated and fell to Earth in the village of Araganwila which is few miles away from the city of Polonnaruwa.
Look at what the electron microscope shows of a sample purported to be from the meteorite:
It looks convincing, and the paper says: “Contamination is excluded by the circumstance that the elemental abundances within the structures match closely with those of the surrounding matrix.“, but I remain skeptical of the claim.
At first I thought this was somebody mistaking a Tektite (Earthly origin ejecta from impact that makes it into space briefly) but this meteorite found in Sri Lanka does not appear to fit that category, being a chondrite. Further, this is a (supposedly) peer reviewed paper in the Journal of Cosmology, just published, but looking at the Journal of Cosmology, I have some doubts about its veracity.
I asked our resident solar expert Dr. Leif Svalgaard what he thought of it:
Credible? Yes and No. Several good scientists that I know personally have published in the Journal. There is also a good deal of junk. The kind of stuff that gets trotted out at WUWT by our resident [commenters] asking us to ‘open our minds’. So, there is both. It is difficult for a layman to sort the wheat from the abundant chaff.
Wickramasinghe is a credible scientist, student and long-time collaborator of Fred Hoyle. I assume you know Hoyle’s theory of continuous creation of matter at just the right rate to make the Universe expand as we observe it in order to keep the density constant. Hoyle coined the ‘derogatory’ [from his point of view] term The Big Bang. Hoyle’s greatest achievement was to co-author the epoch-making paper that explained in quantitative detail how all elements heavier than Lithium are formed in our universe [in supernovae explosions].
So, the jury is still out on the journal, though the scientist gets a +1.
According to the paper:
…the parent body of the Polonnaruwa meteorite would have had most of its interior porous volume filled with water, volatile organics and possibly viable living cells. A remarkable coincidence that should be noted is that within several days of the meteorite fall, an extensive region around the site of the fall experienced an episode of red rain. The red rain analysed at the MRI in Colombo has been shown to contain red biological cells that show viability as well as motility. Preliminary studies from EDX analysis show that these cells are similar to the cells found in the red rain of Kerala that fell in 2001, cells that have not yet been identified with any known terrestrial organism (Louis and Kumar, 2006; Gangappa et al, 2010). Abnormally high abundances of As and Ag in the Sri Lankan red rain cells have been provisionally reported, thus favouring a non-terrestrial habitat, possibly connected with a cometary/asteroidal body, the fragmentation of which led to the Polonnaruwa meteorite fall (Samaranayake and Wickramasinghe, 2012).
The paper is (h/t to Willis Eschenbach):
FOSSIL DIATOMS IN A NEW CARBONACEOUS METEORITE
N. C. Wickramasinghe*1, J. Wallis2, D.H. Wallis1 and Anil Samaranayake+3
1Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, Buckingham, UK
2School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
3Medical Research Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka
ABSTRACT
We report the discovery for the first time of diatom frustules in a carbonaceous meteorite that fell in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka on 29 December 2012. Contamination is excluded by the circumstance that the elemental abundances within the structures match closely with those of the surrounding matrix. 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. The new data on “fossil” diatoms provide strong evidence to support the theory of cometary panspermia.
The full paper is here:
Source from the University of Buckingham website: http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Polonnaruwa-meteorite.pdf
Here is a news story on the paper, including an interview with Wickramasinghe
As a chemist, the morphology of the “diatom” is very difficult to reconcile with inorganic crystal growth. However, hydrothermal depositional processes can lead to very organic-looking semi-microscopic inorganic morphologies. These led astray the scientists who worked on the Mars meteorite, ALH84001.
However, the only really convincing evidence of extraterrestrial life would be if the isotopic ratios within a given element are different from their common ratio on earth. The 12C/13C ratio in the carbonate, for example, should be checked. The min/max mole fraction of terrestrial 13C is 0.009629 to 0.011466. If it falls well out of the terrestrial ratio, an extra terrestrial origin is indicated.
Likewise, the atomic weight of terrestrial calcium is 96.9% 40Ca. But the isotope 44Ca is stable and present at 0.02082 to 0.02092 mole fraction. These ratios can all be checked by accelerator mass spectrometry. Other elements should be checked opportunistically. An extraterrestrial origin, or not, can be established pretty definitively by checking isotope fractions.
scarletmacaw says:
January 14, 2013 at 8:29 pm
Paul Westhaver says:
January 14, 2013 at 7:48 pm
Oh God….
Watts. Not good. Science here only, SVP.
I don’t believe any of this hyperbolic alien-hyping shite.
Science only? Isn’t presenting and debunking pseudoscience one of the main reasons this site exists?
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Like what you did there Scarlet.
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Leif,
I do not know if Fermi said that cynically / satiracally to people who are very focused on extraterrestrial life theories and possibilities. If he was being cynical / satiracal , on what scientific basis could he have been? He did not have any privileged info unless he was being unscientifically secretive.
As the question stands, one possible scenario is extraterrestrial life might be in approximately the same position as life on earth is. We are not yet even infinitesimally close to being in a position to remotely contact anyone across the immense breadth of the universe except at immense timescales; much less even less infinitesimally close go physically going out to look.
As to the paper, I hope they maintained the physical integrity of the meteorite fragment and had a very detailed continuous chain of custody documentation for it since its discovery and also hope they will do so into the future. If they did then it serves all science well for objective verification of their results. If they didn’t then it is a disappointment.
Extraterrestrial life? That we exist is incontrovertible evidence that nature does have in its internal structures viable life making processes. Extremely rare? Actually given we have only an infinitesimally tiny fragment of temporal and spatial evidence makes that question naive at best, n’est ce pas? Rare => it sounds like an absurd human conceit to me.
John
jimmi_the_dalek says:
The meteorite falls in Sri Lanka on the 29th of December, they collect a sample, fly the sample to Cardiff, run it through the electron microscope, write a paper, submit it, have it referred and published all in 12days! Very fast…. too fast to have been checked properly.
Ditto–was the date wrong? It fell in 2011? makes more sense that there is a typo somewhere.
John Whitman says:
January 15, 2013 at 10:02 am
I do not know if Fermi said that cynically / satirically
I think Fermi was dead-serious. Considering that it would be highly likely that many alien civilizations would be way ahead of ours [in time] and that we could colonize the Galaxy in 300 million years, so could they. Since they haven’t, they don’t exist.
As to the paper, I hope they maintained the physical integrity of the meteorite fragment and had a very detailed continuous chain of custody documentation for it since its discovery and also hope they will do so into the future. If they did then it serves all science well for objective verification of their results. If they didn’t then it is a disappointment.
I think the various suggestions about checking the isotopic composition should settle the question, and then it doesn’t matter how the meteorite is handled.
Extraterrestrial life?
Assuming you mean higher life, Fermi’s paradox has three ‘solutions’.
1) we are alone [the first civilization]
2) civilizations don’t live long enough to even start colonizing [blow themselves up]
3) interstellar travel is too hard or dangerous
Each of those have various objections against them.
The following has been stated in the lead post and many times by numerous commenters:
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Any scientific theory is established as part of a snapshot in time of developing scientific knowledge by showing sufficient and necessary evidence of observed conformation to real identified entities and their actual behaviors.
A most unforeseen revolutionary theory may be scientifically established with a mundane set of overlooked minor observations. It only needs to be sufficient and necessary, it does not need to be extraordinary . . .
Abandon the mythic “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence“ claim.
John
John Whitman says:
January 15, 2013 at 11:00 am
Abandon the mythic “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence“ claim.
I would tend to agree with you. Such mundane evidence as Aliens simply landing on the White House lawn [assuming the Secret Service don’t get them first] and demanding “take us to your leader” would do the trick. The issue can be twisted around: if some evidence confirm an extraordinary claim, then, clearly, that evidence must be extraordinary.
I would rather prefer the phrase ‘solid evidence’.
Why would “Red Rain” fall near by several days after the meteorite fell. The earth is spinning rather fast, and moving around the sun rather fast. What would make this “Red Rain” just hapen to fall nearby. Surly the fine biomater that caused the red rain would have a different trajectory through the atmospher. Or is the implication that biomater survived intact inside the meteorite, then somehow made its way into the rain. This just seems very rediculous.
Shenanigans are afoot. Not only is the purported timeframe (12 days) a ludicrously short time in which to secure the samples, secure SEM access, examine the meteorite, write and edit the paper, and have it accepted for publication, but note that there is no sign of this paper on Journal of Cosmology’s (decidedly geocitiesesque) website. Note also the header in this paper, and pull any article from Journal of Cosmology and compare. Right. Journal of Cosmology publishes volumes, but not numbers.
We are being spoofed. The paper isn’t real. Someone likely just whipped it up as a prank, and slapped a few seemingly appropriate names on it. With this in mind, that one of the frustules is clearly from a terrestrial genus of diatom makes me suspect that we’re looking at a rock of thoroughly terrestrial origin which is being misrepresented for the sake of the prank, and not a meteorite, or even a tektite.
Leif Svalgaard says:
January 15, 2013 at 10:55 am
Or they’ve colonized Jupiter, which is a lovely planet for them.
4) everyone else is hiding from the wolves and xenophobic religious zealots who prowl the galaxy.
Could the meteorite have come from Titian? that would be an interesting link to make.
beng says:
January 15, 2013 at 9:48 am
Silver Ralph says:
January 15, 2013 at 7:01 am
And I doubt that advanced civilisations will use radio frequency communications for long, in their development. ………….
Not sure what else they’d use. Lasers are fine for unobstructed short-range, but doesn’t penetrate gas/dust.
______________________________
Nutrino comms. Stands to reason – nothing gets in their way. Clear comms across the galaxy.
.
Extremophiles from earth may already be populating our solar-system, they survive in volcanoes and sometimes volcanoes can launch material into space.
SpartanCanuck says:January 15, 2013 at 11:13 am
“…We are being spoofed. The paper isn’t real…”
Listed in Volume 21 here… Article number 37 in Volume 21 …shown 4th from the bottom of the page; (amongst several publications on the subject, all by Wickramasinghe, and just above the photo of “the living diatom extracted from the meteorite” !!)
http://journalofcosmology.com/JOC21/indexVol21CONTENTS.htm
Dave Griscom says:
I believe there is a near consensus that if Wickramasinghe’s sample isn’t a fake, then it must be a meteorite from the Earth. (I think that most of us agree that the red rains are red herrings).
Meteorites from the Earth are regarded to exist but are believed by these authors as unlikely to ever be recovered:
Gladman, B. J., Burns, J. A., Duncan, M., Lee, P., and Levison, H. F.: The exchange of
impact ejecta between terrestrial planets, Science, 271, 1387-1392, 1996.
DOI:10.1126/science.271.5254.1387
If there were to be any meteorites from the Earth, it has been deemed likely that some of them would have originated with the Chesapeake Bay impact ca. 35.5 Ma:
Faucett, P. J., and Boslough, M. B. E.: Climatic effects of an impact-induced equatorial debris ring, J. Geophys. Res. 107 (D15), 4231-4249, 2002. doi:10.1029/2001JD001230.
There are diatomaceous sands in the impact area of the CB crater.
(general knowledge)
Perhaps the most successful mechanism for putting fragments of the Earth into distant orbits that do not return to the Earth’s atmosphere for ~35.5 m.y. is the jetting phase, wherein ejecta is launched nearly tangentially to the Earth’s surface “at speeds usually faster than the projectile itself.”:
Melosh H. J.: Impact Cratering – A Geological Process, Oxford Monogr. Geol. Geophys
Ser., vol. 11, Oxford University Press, New York, 1989. p.51
So all we have to do now is to find some of these meteorites from the Earth and study them.
And in fact I have found one:
Griscom D L., In plain sight: the Chesapeake Bay crater ejecta blanket, Solid Earth Discuss., 4, 363—428, 2012, http://www.solid-earth-discuss.net/4/363/2012/sed-4-363-2012.html
doi:10.5194/sed-4-363-2012
(Sections 10 and 11 treat jetting-phase ejecta (which didn’t leave the Earth) and a recovered meteorite from the Earth, respectively.)
The link above shows my abstract and permits downloading the full article. However, if you wish to read it I recommend downloading my reader-friendly version (figures inline w/ text) here: http://www.drivehq.com/file/df.aspx/publish/dlgriscom/CBcraterResearch
AnonyMoose says:
“4) everyone else is hiding from the wolves and xenophobic religious zealots who prowl the galaxy. “
LOL!
Don’t forget the logizomechanophobic zealots, just think what the Butlerian Jihadists would do to us if they find us! The precautionary principle demands we stop broadcasts NOW!
/sarc
AnonyMoose says:
January 15, 2013 at 11:26 am
4) everyone else is hiding from the wolves and xenophobic religious zealots who prowl the galaxy.
since we are doing anything to hide, the Wolves would have found us already. Since they haven’t [Men in Black, notwithstanding],one or more of the three ‘solutions’ must be operating.
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Leif,
I will stick with ‘necessary and sufficient’ evidence.
‘Solid’ evidence might be ‘necessary and sufficient’ evidence. I would think ‘solid’ is subsumed under ‘sufficient’?
John
John Whitman says:
January 15, 2013 at 12:54 pm
I will stick with ‘necessary and sufficient’ evidence.
I don’t think ‘necessary’ is necessary…
Wickramasinghe’s belief, faith is probably more accurate, is that extraterrestrial life is raining down on earth for decades and all life on Earth is the result of comet panspermia.
When person with a Cause, provides evidence we should take that evidence with a grain, no shovel full of salt.
A scientist may have all the credentials, publish in respected journals and still be a Quack.
Just read a few of his arguments and logic in the statement he provided during the 1981 trial in Arkansas concerning teaching alternate theories to evolution.
http://www.panspermia.org/chandra.htm
“In our view every crucial new inheritable property that appears in the course of the evolution of species must have an external cosmic origin.”
In criminal trials, violations or gaps in the “chain of custody” may immediately put into question the validity of an admitted piece of evidence.
“Fig 1b shows a photograph of a small piece of the meteorite that was sent by one of us (AS) for study at the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology and Cardiff University.”
How convenient for a True Believer to receive and analyze this “small piece”.
Chain of Custody anyone?
Interesting that there is a rather large effort to find meteorites at the south pole
http://geology.cwru.edu/~ansmet/
Or it takes a lot of resources or centuries to travel here. SF writers have covered this ground, with bad results for us. I gave examples where reasoned logic is not the driving factor, because the arguments which are based upon a logical civilization don’t necessarily apply to everyone. Totally destroying an enemy doesn’t make sense if you don’t benefit from it, or if the time delay does not allow the home of the attackers to benefit. Maybe they’re not driven by logic. Maybe they’re zealots who are trying to protect their nest from everyone else, or maybe they’re planet-consuming plants who seek dry concrete as a fast breeding ground.
As for this meteorite, I missed the expert evaluation of why this black-and-white image is limestone rather than CC meteorite. Because it would be fascinating, whatever it means, I hope this study is somehow reproducible, of course, but hoping won’t make it so.
Slate Magazine
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html
trashes this. Those are freshwater diatoms, not fossils at all. And there is no evidence whatsoever that the specimen is from a meteorite.
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Leif,
Appreciate your continuing dialog.
The existence of human beings is sufficient evidence of the capability of natural processes to result in some kind (maybe like us and maybe nothing like us) of other intelligent life existing elsewhere in the universe, but it is not the necessary evidence that the processes of nature yielded another intelligent life form. Given the rather almost incomprehensively immense scale of the spatial and temporal universe, we may be in for an unimaginably long effort to get the necessary evidence of other intelligent life forms.
Step one perhaps is just establishing whether any kind of life form exists independent of Earth, even if just the most primitive of forms. That would give more energy to the consideration of there being other intelligent life forms in the universe.
Fermi’s paradox seems too presumptuous. I think his paradox presumes that another intelligent life form is social (e.g. forms a civilization) and it presumes other ‘intelligent’ life will have an intelligence like ours and has the same basic interests as ours. If he also presumed other intelligent life is probably much much more ancient than us then to me that appears to be an unnecessary and an insufficient constraint; it is just one of many scenarios with no more probability than many other scenarios. Anyway, Fermi’s paradox appears to have too much presumption for me.
John
I haven’t been able to read read all the comments. Some have said this story doesn’t belong here because of the shoddy science behind it.
I disagree. It has a place here even though it sounds fishier than Jackson’s email release because it is the kind of thing that might get wide MSM coverage. Prove the boat won’t float before it’s launched.