Panspermia

Panspermia is the hypothesis that the seeds of life are prevalent throughout the universe, and furthermore that life on Earth began by such seeds landing on Earth and propagating themselves. The idea has its origins in the writings of Anaxagoras, but was first proposed in its modern form by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1879. Panspermia can be said to be either interstellar (between star systems) or interplanetary (between planets in the same solar system). There is as yet no compelling evidence to support or contradict it, although the consensus view holds that panspermia?especially in its interstellar form?is unlikely given the challenges of survival and transport in space.

See also

• Back-contamination
• Forward-contamination
• Origin of life
• Paleoclimatology
• Star Jelly
• Timeline of the universe
• Theories of the origin of humans
• Universal common ancestor