earth/mars life

[razman]

A meteorite found on earth was supposedly to have originated from the planet Mars. Therefore would it not be possible that in the distant past a chunk of earth was blasted from earth carrying bacteria eventually crashed into Mars.
Astronauts finding this bacteria would claim that they had found E.T.

[wildwood]

Some believe that just such a chunk broke from the planet Earth in the very beginning when it was forming, we now call this the Moon.

Even if somehow a chunk broke off from the Earth and was blasted into space, even bacteria needs oxygen to survive so it would frizzle away into dust soon after it left this planet's atmosphere.

I have read about the possibility that life on Earth was seeded here by meteorites from Mars but I don't believe it. Some others may.

[jake-the-peg]

Actully Wildwood's incorrect about bacteria's ability to survive without air and even in space.

Extremophyles have been found in the most extreme conditions including in nuclear reactors and some have been found to survive space flights which is why sterilising space craft is taken very seriously.

This theory of Earth being feeded from space is what you might call a serious but minority view. In that you won't find many scientists who seriously believe it but generally they'd be willing to look at any evidence from the few that do.

There are a few problems with it - firstly any "seeds" would be unlikely to make the trip in a straigh line but would have been knocking around in space for a while before they bumped into the Earth.

Secondly we know life started on Earth pretty early after the initial heavy bombardment period so that means life would have had to have started even faster on Mars - which seems unlikely or come from a nearby star which seems unlikely too as it's hard enough to send a guided mission any distance ( Mars has been missed many times!)

Thirdly it doesn't really help in understanding the initial development of life, Occam's razor - the simplest explatation is right - tends to work against it.