Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years

Martin Beech; Ian M. Coulson; Mark Comte

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14

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Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years

Martin Beech, Ian M. Coulson, Mark Comte

Published in American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Volume 6, Issue 3)

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.

Published in	American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Volume 6, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14
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), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Impact Craters, Chicxulub Crater, Impact Ejecta, Lithopanspermia

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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://article.sciencepublishinggroup.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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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years
AU  - Martin Beech
AU  - Ian M. Coulson
AU  - Mark Comte
Y1  - 2018/11/27
PY  - 2018
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DO  - 10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14
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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PB  - Science Publishing Group
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UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14
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.
VL  - 6
IS  - 3
ER  -

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Author Information

Martin Beech

Campion College, the University of Regina, Regina, Canada
Ian M. Coulson

Department Geology, the University of Regina, Regina, Canada
Mark Comte

Department Physics, the University of Regina, Regina, Canada

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

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

Copy | Download

@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://article.sciencepublishinggroup.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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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Lithopanspermia – The Terrestrial Input During the Past 550 Million Years
AU  - Martin Beech
AU  - Ian M. Coulson
AU  - Mark Comte
Y1  - 2018/11/27
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14
T2  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
JO  - American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics
SP  - 81
EP  - 90
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2376-4686
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajaa.20180603.14
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.
VL  - 6
IS  - 3
ER  -

Copy | Download