Abstract
Astrobiology as it is currently pursued generally ignores the possibility that life might be a cosmic phenomenon, and that fully-fledged microbial life – bacteria and viruses – are cosmically omnipresent. The exploration of this possibility, which is opposed to the conventional view of an origin of life occurring independently on individual planets like Earth, is urgently needed in the light of new data.
Highlights
From the mid-1970’s onwards the present author and the late Sir Fred Hoyle argued that spectroscopic evidence existed for the widespread occurrence of organic molecules and biomolecules throughout the interstellar medium of the galaxy [1,2,3,4,5]
When prebiotic molecules are delivered to planets like the Earth via comets and meteorites [7] an origin of life takes place in the manner originally proposed by Oparin and Haldane [8]
The alternative possibility is that fully-fledged microbial life exists on a galactic scale and that the astronomically observed molecules are mostly the detritus of biology
Summary
From the mid-1970’s onwards the present author and the late Sir Fred Hoyle argued that spectroscopic evidence existed for the widespread occurrence of organic molecules and biomolecules throughout the interstellar medium of the galaxy [1,2,3,4,5]. When prebiotic molecules are delivered to planets like the Earth via comets and meteorites [7] an origin of life takes place in the manner originally proposed by Oparin and Haldane [8]. The alternative possibility is that fully-fledged microbial life exists on a galactic scale and that the astronomically observed molecules are mostly the detritus of biology.
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