Does life's rapid appearance imply a Martian origin?
Astrophysics
2009-11-10 v1
Abstract
The hypothesis that the rapid appearance of life on Earth justifies the belief that life is widespread in the universe has been investigated statistically by Lineweaver and Davis. However, a rapid appearance could also be interpreted as evidence for a nonterrestrial origin. I attempt to quantify the relative probabilities for a nonindigenous versus an indigenous origin of life on Earth, on the assumption that biogenesis involved one or more highly improbable steps, using a generalization of the well known observer selection argument of Carter. The analysis is specifically applied to a Martian origin of life, with subsequent transfer to Earth within impact ejecta.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0403049,
title = {Does life's rapid appearance imply a Martian origin?},
author = {P. C. W. Davies},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0403049},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
10 pages, no figures, research paper