Re: Extreme Ecosystem
Posted by Amaranth Rose on May 17, 2004 at 08:17
(65.172.150.7)Re: Extreme Ecosystem (Royta)
Perhaps we ought to be a bit more broad minded in our approach, and recognize what life itself is trying to tell us: Where there is a space, there is life.
There are really two (at least!) separate questions about life. How did it arise? How far can it spread?
Perhaps the notion of simple people in ancient times that plagues often followed bright comets appearances might have some validity in actuality, if one admits the possibility that life might exist in or on those frozen slush balls, and might be carried off by evaporation and eventually come to Earth. Between Earth-grazing asteroids and meteors kicking up debris and send it out into space, debris which we can assume was contaminated with life in the first place, there's certainly enough stuff that could have started here, been on a long "walkabout", and returned to a population that no longer had any immunity to it. Much the same situation occurred when native Americans encountered Europeans and succumbed in huge numbers to Tuberculosis.
Far-fetched, perhaps. Impossible? Nothing's impossible. Improbable, now there's a whole 'nother ball game.