Panspermia is the hypothesis that life can survive the transfer between planetary bodies as a secondary path for life to get started on planets throughout a solar system. The discovery of extraterrestrial life on asteroids or within meteorites would have profound implications for understanding the origins and distribution of life in the universe.
Reports of microorganisms found in chondritic meteorites have long fueled debates about extraterrestrial life reaching Earth and possibly as an origin of life here. While studies have concluded these microbial signatures are just terrestrial contaminants, arguments for them being extraterrestrial travelers have continued.
Researchers from Imperial College London have discovered that a space-returned sample from asteroid Ryugu was rapidly colonized by terrestrial microorganisms, even under stringent contamination control measures.
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