One way to learn about the possible existence of extraterrestrial life is to study meteorites that have fallen to Earth.

This is the opinion of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR).

There, experts study the fossilized remains of microorganisms found in the Orgei meteorite.

In February 2022, scientists summed up the results of the study and presented a number of evidence in favor of the extraterrestrial origin of traces of life in a cosmic sample.

JINR is confident that these microorganisms originated outside of our planet.

However, not all colleagues in the scientific community agree with this assessment.

Recall that the mentioned meteorite entered the earth's atmosphere in the sky over France in 1864 and exploded during the flight.

Most of the fragments fell near the village of Orgei.

The celestial body was subsequently classified by experts as a carbonaceous chondrite - a stone meteorite with a high content of carbon and volatile components (water, sulfur, rare gases).

  • Orgei meteorite

  • AFP

  • © FRANCOIS-GUILLOT

With the help of a scanning microscope, researchers from JINR managed to detect filamentous and coccoid bacteria, as well as diatoms and prasinophytes, and other fossilized microorganisms in the meteorite.

As one of the authors of the study, JINR junior researcher Anton Ryumin, told TASS earlier, among the organics found in the Orgei meteorite there is one that is found in terrestrial sedimentary rocks.

However, the version of the terrestrial origin of this meteorite, according to which it could once have been knocked out of the Earth by the fall of an asteroid, and in 1864 simply returned to our planet, has not been confirmed.

The isotopic composition of the sample shows that it is neither terrestrial nor lunar in origin.

“For example, in Orhei there are a large number of structures that correspond in morphology to bacteria and eukaryotic algae, their density is very high: per 1 cubic meter.

mm of substance - from one and a half to two thousand pieces.

In such numbers, they could not grow after the fall.

Soil samples were taken at the crash site, but nothing of the kind was found, ”TASS quoted Ryumin as saying.

Among the bacteria found, fossilized magnetotactics were also found - microorganisms that could only arise on an object with a magnetic field and water.

Scientists call magnetotaxis the ability of some bacteria living in the aquatic environment to move along the lines of force of the Earth's magnetic field or a magnet.

Head of the Astrobiology Sector of the Laboratory of Radiation Biology at JINR, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Rozanov is sure that the above-mentioned finds prove the existence of extraterrestrial life.

In a conversation with RT, the scientist recalled that bacteria are able to endure space conditions, and already highly organized unicellular organisms are close to them - protists, whose remains are also found in meteorites, along with fossilized green algae.

“Life can move in space, there are no serious obstacles for this,” the academician noted.

The scientist expressed confidence that sooner or later primitive microorganisms will be found on Mars.

Moreover, not on the surface of the planet, but under it.

“Such assumptions have been made repeatedly.

And professionals who are seriously dealing with the issue no longer doubt that life did not originate on Earth.

Because RNA in the right environment is enough for the origin of life.

For example, in montmorillonite - this is such a clay.

It was discovered in space, so there are no obstacles for the origin of life in space earlier than it happened on Earth,” Rozanov emphasized.

  • Image of fossilized microorganisms found in the Orgei meteorite

  • © Wiley Online Library

The researchers claim that microorganisms were not introduced into the meteorite after it fell to Earth.

The proof of this hypothesis is the absence in it of organic nitrogenous compounds that are part of DNA and RNA - cytosine and thymine.

For example, for cytosine, the half-life is about 17 thousand years at 0 °C.

Accordingly, the absence of thymine and cytosine in Orgea indicates that the meteorite material "was not contaminated by modern living or recently deceased terrestrial microorganisms," the scientists explain.

However, the head of the Department of Biological Evolution of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, paleontologist Alexander Markov disagrees with this point of view.

In an interview with RT, the expert emphasized that dating by the presence of nitrogenous compounds in samples is not the most reliable method, applicable to far from any object.

“Besides, how do they (the authors of the concept of the extraterrestrial origin of microorganisms. -

RT

) measure the elemental composition of this meteorite?

The scanning electron microscope has such a function - the determination of the elemental composition.

But this technique has many pitfalls, for example, it is very easy to mistakenly get the composition of the rock that is under it instead of the elemental composition of a small object of interest to you on the surface of the sample.

And as a result, terrestrial pollution will be mistaken for something “native” to the meteorite,” Markov specified.

According to the scientist, so far no proven traces of life have been found on extraterrestrial objects.

It was possible to detect only organics of abiogenic origin - organic substances that are formed in space without the participation of living beings.

Such substances are found in comets and meteorites.

Anthropocentric approach

The version of the extraterrestrial origin of the microorganisms found in the Orgei meteorite is also defended by the American astrobiologist Richard Hoover.

The expert worked for NASA for many years, heading the department of astrobiology at the George Marshall Space Flight Center.

Now the scientist works at the US Space & Rocket Center aerospace museum in Alabama.

In a paper published in 2011, Hoover noted that although many of the cyanobacteria found in meteorite traces are resistant to desiccation, they are still unable to reproduce in this state.

At the same time, the Orgei meteorite, after its fall to Earth, could not be in the aquatic environment.

The chemical composition of the sample is such that water would simply destroy its structure.

“After the arrival of meteorites on Earth, these stones could not be immersed in the liquid water necessary for the growth of modern cyanobacteria, otherwise they would be destroyed.

It is clearly seen that many of the filaments shown in the images are embedded in the matrix of the meteorite stone.

Therefore, the cyanobacterial filaments found in these meteorites could not have developed after the arrival of meteorites on Earth,” Hoover summarizes in his article.

  • Gettyimages.ru

At the same time, a number of experts disagree with this interpretation.

As Alexander Markov noted, after fossils resembling biological remains were found in the Orgei meteorite, the issue of their origin was discussed in serious scientific journals.

However, scientists quickly came to the conclusion that these objects penetrated the meteorite after they fell to Earth.

“The scientific discussion ended there, although some experts in the United States and Russia have become fascinated with the topic and believe in the foreign nature of these structures,” Markov said.

A similar point of view is shared by Dmitry Badyukov, head of the laboratory of meteoritics at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences.

In a conversation with RT, the scientist explained that the morphology of the remains found in the Orgei meteorite is not proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life.

“Yes, in this meteorite we can observe bacteria, sporangia, but it has not been proven that they are of extraterrestrial origin.

And until DNA is found in such finds, claims of extraterrestrial life will remain hypotheses.

Although we cannot rule out that someday such evidence will still be found, because the prerequisites for the emergence of life were laid 13.5 billion years ago, in the very fact of the existence of our Universe, ”Badyukov added.

In turn, Academician Rozanov explains the skepticism of a number of scientists towards the concept of panspermia by the tradition that has developed in the scientific community.

He explained that critics are simply broadcasting echoes of old feuds in the scientific community, which initially unfolded mainly in the United States, and then spread to Russia.

“Because of this, for a long time, the study of meteorites for the presence of fossilized remains of life in them was considered almost indecent.

The anthropocentric approach dominated the scientific environment.

But before, people believed that the Sun revolves around the Earth, ”said the academician.

Looking for answers

The Orgei meteorite is not the first object of cosmic origin in which traces of fossilized microorganisms were found.

This topic caused the greatest resonance in the 1990s - the ALH 84001 meteorite (Allan Hills 84001), found earlier in Antarctica, was in the spotlight then.

According to experts, it is of Martian origin and consists of one of the oldest known Martian rocks - the age of formation is about 4 billion years. 

In 1996, a group of American scientists, most of whom worked at NASA, published an article in the scientific journal Science about the presence of traces of extraterrestrial life in a meteorite.

Even while a piece of rock was on Mars, carbonate minerals were deposited in its cracks, the process took place with the participation of water.

It was in the tiny balls of carbonates that the researchers found a number of features that prompted them to hypothesize about the biological past of the samples.

“Researchers at Stanford found easily detectable amounts of organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that were concentrated near carbonates.

Researchers at the Lyndon Johnson Space Center have discovered mineral compounds that are commonly associated with microscopic organisms and possibly microscopic fossil structures, ”said the materials published by the scientific team in 1996.

  • Mars

  • Gettyimages.ru

Information about the possible discovery of traces of extraterrestrial life caused a tremendous resonance.

The President of the United States (then this post was occupied by Bill Clinton) devoted his speech to this news.

He stated that if the version of extraterrestrial life is confirmed, it will be "one of the most amazing discoveries about our universe ever made by science."

However, the discovery was soon criticized by scientists.

Two years after the publication of the article, one of its authors, NASA planetary scientist David McKay, admitted that the final answer to the question of whether the structures found in the meteorite are traces of extraterrestrial life has yet to be found.

“One of the lessons we've learned from the Martian meteorite controversy is that we simply don't have the answers yet.

We will have to work hard to find them, ”he said in an interview with NBC.

At the beginning of 2022, a group of planetary scientists from the Carnegie Institution who studied ALH 84001 tried to put an end to this issue. Scientists came to the conclusion that the organic matter contained in it arose due to abiotic mechanisms.

These findings were outlined in an article published in the journal Science.

At the same time, scientists agreed with the version that the meteorite was once exposed to water.

According to the authors of the article, abiotic organic synthesis reactions have been going on on Mars for a long time, which are not associated with the activity of any microorganisms.

The same phenomenon can explain the presence of methane on Mars, the researchers believe.