American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years

Received: 18 September 2018    Accepted: 25 October 2018    Published: 27 November 2018
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Abstract

An estimate for the minimum amount of terrestrial material deposited into interplanetary space over the past ~550 million years is made. Using the published characteristics of known terrestrial impact craters, it is found that at least 1013 kg of potentially life-bearing matter has been ejected from the Earth’s surface into the inner solar system. This estimate is derived upon a reverse-engineering approach which links the observed crater diameter to impactor size and which employs a set of analytic equations to obtain an estimate of the mass fraction of material ejected, with a speed greater than the Earth’s escape velocity, during the crater-forming process. Of the total amount of terrestrial material ejected into the inner solar system, some 67% can be attributed to the formation of the Chicxulub crater – the largest known crater to have been produced within the Phanerozoic eon. Given a typical asteroid / short-period comet encounter speed of 25 to 28 km/s the ejecta produced in a terrestrial cratering event can, in principle, rapidly find its way onto orbits that intercept the Moon as well those of the planets from Mercury out to Jupiter, thereby populating the solar system with material that harbours viable populations of terrestrial microbes.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14
Published in American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Volume 6, Issue 3, September 2018)
Page(s) 81-90
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Impact Craters, Chicxulub Crater, Impact Ejecta, Lithopanspermia

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Author Information
  • Campion College, the University of Regina, Regina, Canada; Department Physics, the University of Regina, Regina, Canada

  • Department Geology, the University of Regina, Regina, Canada

  • Department Physics, the University of Regina, Regina, Canada

Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Martin Beech, Ian M. Coulson, Mark Comte. (2018). Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years. American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 6(3), 81-90. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14

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    ACS Style

    Martin Beech; Ian M. Coulson; Mark Comte. Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years. Am. J. Astron. Astrophys. 2018, 6(3), 81-90. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14

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    AMA Style

    Martin Beech, Ian M. Coulson, Mark Comte. Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years. Am J Astron Astrophys. 2018;6(3):81-90. doi: 10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14,
      author = {Martin Beech and Ian M. Coulson and Mark Comte},
      title = {Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years},
      journal = {American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics},
      volume = {6},
      number = {3},
      pages = {81-90},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajaa.20180603.14},
      abstract = {An estimate for the minimum amount of terrestrial material deposited into interplanetary space over the past ~550 million years is made. Using the published characteristics of known terrestrial impact craters, it is found that at least 1013 kg of potentially life-bearing matter has been ejected from the Earth’s surface into the inner solar system. This estimate is derived upon a reverse-engineering approach which links the observed crater diameter to impactor size and which employs a set of analytic equations to obtain an estimate of the mass fraction of material ejected, with a speed greater than the Earth’s escape velocity, during the crater-forming process. Of the total amount of terrestrial material ejected into the inner solar system, some 67% can be attributed to the formation of the Chicxulub crater – the largest known crater to have been produced within the Phanerozoic eon. Given a typical asteroid / short-period comet encounter speed of 25 to 28 km/s the ejecta produced in a terrestrial cratering event can, in principle, rapidly find its way onto orbits that intercept the Moon as well those of the planets from Mercury out to Jupiter, thereby populating the solar system with material that harbours viable populations of terrestrial microbes.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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    T2  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
    JF  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
    JO  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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    AB  - An estimate for the minimum amount of terrestrial material deposited into interplanetary space over the past ~550 million years is made. Using the published characteristics of known terrestrial impact craters, it is found that at least 1013 kg of potentially life-bearing matter has been ejected from the Earth’s surface into the inner solar system. This estimate is derived upon a reverse-engineering approach which links the observed crater diameter to impactor size and which employs a set of analytic equations to obtain an estimate of the mass fraction of material ejected, with a speed greater than the Earth’s escape velocity, during the crater-forming process. Of the total amount of terrestrial material ejected into the inner solar system, some 67% can be attributed to the formation of the Chicxulub crater – the largest known crater to have been produced within the Phanerozoic eon. Given a typical asteroid / short-period comet encounter speed of 25 to 28 km/s the ejecta produced in a terrestrial cratering event can, in principle, rapidly find its way onto orbits that intercept the Moon as well those of the planets from Mercury out to Jupiter, thereby populating the solar system with material that harbours viable populations of terrestrial microbes.
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