[meteorite-list] Bacteria Found to Survive 'Hypergravity'

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:35:31 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201104292335.p3TNZV5n007604_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/27/scitech/main20058032.shtml

Bacteria found to survive "hypergravity"
CBS News
April 27, 2011

Study finds that bacteria can grow despite extreme gravity, raising
possibility that life may have arrived here via comet


Talk about hearty bacteria. A new study
<http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/04/20/1018027108.abstract?sid=99952caa-85c5-4a26-8c02-88c78b26bf67>
published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
reports that some bacteria can exist even in extreme "hypergravity." In
other words, they can still live and breed despite gravitational forces
that are 400,000 times greater than what's felt here on Earth.

But the real importance of the research is in what it suggests: In
concluding that the habitability of extraterrestrial environments must
not be limited by gravity, the researchers raise the possibility that
alien life also might be able to survive after meteorite impacts and
take root on Earth.

"Our results indicate that microorganisms cannot only survive during
hyperacceleration but can display such robust proliferative behavior
that the habitability of extraterrestrial environments must not be
limited by gravity," the researchers note in their paper.

There is a body of scientific argument which contends that life on Earth
may have come from outer space
<http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/asteroids-comets-article.html>
in the form of microbes which attached themselves to comets and
meteorites. While careful not to directly wade into that debate, Shigeru
Deguchi of the Japan Agency of Marine-Earth Science and Technology in
Yokosuka and the report's lead author said "the number and types of
environments that we now think life can inhabit in the universe has
expanded because of our study," said Deguchi.
<http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/04/25/Bacteria-seen-surviving-hypergravity/UPI-21271303779427/#ixzz1KlD5KhBD>

He noted that E. coli tested in the experiments was able to withstand
the impact of the equivalent of 7,500 G's. By comparison, humans will
black out when hit by forces anywhere between three to five times the
Earth's surface gravity.
Received on Fri 29 Apr 2011 07:35:31 PM PDT