Around 4 billion years ago, Earth was under attack. The planet’s surface was bombarded by asteroid after asteroid and a whole host of other interstellar rocky bodies amidst the chaos of a young universe. But after this time of chaos, life — in the form of microorganisms — began to emerge.

That life could spring from a catastrophic asteroid impact may seem paradoxical, but according to one popular theory of how life arose on Earth, the two events may be far more interconnected than you might think.

The theory of panspermia suggests that life didn’t originate on Earth at all. Instead, it originated elsewhere in the universe, and was transported to our planet through interstellar objects that traveled between planetary systems — including the asteroids that smashed into Earth all those billions of years ago.

Now, scientists say they have new evidence for the theory. In the paper, they detail how a meteor’s close encounter with Earth in 2017 allowed them to calibrate the number of interstellar objects that may have carried life from our planet to another star system.

"Contagious, interplanetary disease? Huh? That's a rather typically leftist mianthropic view of life if you ask me. These anti-people people make me sick.To read more, click here.