[meteorite-list] Article on artificial meteorites

[Sterling K. Webb]

Hi, Darren, List,

    In thinking about the "likelihood" of organisms
from one planet gaining a foothold on another planet,
there is one very obvious point in game-theory that is
being ignored here.

    Let's say some evil force is determined to kill you.
You foil each and every assassin they send against you,
but they have an endless supply of fanatical attackers.
To live, you have to be successful EVERY time; they
only have to be successful ONCE.

    Whether it's a case of bringing life to a lifeless world,
or bringing a new form of life well-suited to expansion
onto a world that already has lifeforms, the "invader"
only has to succeed ONCE. And if the introduced
lifeform is NOT well-suited to expand on the world it
"invades," then no number of "invasions" will succeed.

    Since you can never demonstrate a ZERO potential of
biotic transfer, you can never prove its impossibility, for the
simple reason that it need only happen ONCE to change
an entire world.

    "Reasoning" on the basis of what is reasonable is always
risky. For example, it was obvious that, after a half billion years
of the evolution of land animals, the 170 million year dominance
of the dinosauria would eventually lead to intelligent life. It was
the only reasonable thing. ONE little accident, that's all, just ONE,
and we're starting over again, with nothing more promising than
tree rats.

    It's a hell of a thing.


Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Darren Garrison" <cynapse at charter.net>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 12:34 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Article on artificial meteorites


I think some information on this has been posted before, but I don't know if 
all
of this has.  Of note:

"The dolomite did not acquire a fusion crust. Instead, the surface exposed 
to
the heat of re-entry burned off. This could point to one reason why we have 
not
yet found a sedimentary martian meteorite - it lacks that tell-tale black 
fusion
crust that meteorite hunters look for.

"It will be difficult to recognize them," says Brack. "There is no obvious 
sign
or feature that they are meteorites. The only way would be to have a mass
spectrometer to measure the oxygen isotopes 16, 17, and 18, as well as 
nickel,
manganese, and chromium, because Martian silicates are expected to be 
enriched
in these elements." "

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2567&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
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