The Arrhenius Vector

Interstellar origins of life

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Nobel prize winner Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) suggested that microbes could be hurled into near- planetary space by storms, and travel from planet to planet by radiation pressure. Arrhenius is often credited with originating the idea of panspermia, although earlier scientists like William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) had already advanced the idea that life on Earth was seeded by meteorites.

In the 1950s, astronomer Otto Struve suggested that intelligent beings might have carried life from planet to planet, although not necessarily on purpose. This idea that we are descended from "garbage" left by alien travellers has informed a number of works of speculative fiction.

http://pibburns.com/catastro/pansperm.htm

tenuous shapes are swirling in streams
of mist collecting near astroblemes,
amorphous as half-remembered dreams,
in a strange camaraderie.

They come together, assembling here
as a herd migrates to a water hole,
with a single instinct. No hate or fear,
but a placid, unanimous animal soul.

Here the familiar and strange abound -
glyptodont, brontothere, hunting hound,
some species whose fossils have not been found.
They look to the skies and stare,

Waiting for heaven to open the gate.
Gathered again in their old domains,
silent, expectant, they come to wait
near the meteor craters that still remain.

During the night each millionth year
they assemble to watch for the light to appear,
hoping that what once brought them here
will take them home again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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