Timothy Birdnow

A Russian cosmonaut claims he has found alien bacteria on the outside of the International Space Station.

According to the CNET article:


"A Russian cosmonaut claims to have caught aliens. Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov says he found bacteria clinging to the external surface of the International Space Station that didn't come from the surface of Earth.

Shkaplerov told the Russian news agency Tass that cosmonauts collected the bacteria by swabbing the outside of the space station during space walks years ago.

"And now it turns out that somehow these swabs reveal bacteria that were absent during the launch of the ISS module," Shkaplerov told Tass. "That is, they have come from outer space and settled along the external surface. They are being studied so far and it seems that they pose no danger."

The cosmonaut is preparing for his third trip to the space station next month. The collection of life forms from the outside of the ISS during one of his previous trips was something of a mini controversy a few years back. Russian scientists reported that spacewalk sample harvests yielded evidence of apparent sea plankton clinging to the station. The claims caught NASA by surprise at the time, which said it had heard nothing from the Russians about any space plankton."

End excerpt.

I don't buy it; extraterrestrial life would likely be quite different than Earth born, and we would know it right away if we were to examine it. More likely it was something clinging to a space suit that contaminated the surface of the station.

The article continues:

"It seems unlikely that anyone could completely rule out that the bacteria have Earthly origins. We know that bacteria and other life forms like tardigrades can live in extreme conditions like those in space, so it's possible that undiscovered microbes living in Earth's upper atmosphere were picked by the space station over the years."

End excerpt.

We have no evidence for any life outside of the Earth. That does not mean it isn't there but we have no evidence. It should also be pointed out that life off Earth may not even be recognizable to us as such. Earth is very unique; and our life forms are all related. We all have DNA or RNA, are all carbon based, all require water. Life evolved independently of our little oasis would probably be very different, adapted to alien environments. And outside of Mars those environments would be very cold and atmospheres full of methane and ammonia. Hardly familiar.

So I suspect this is home grown, perhaps mutated, but terrestrial. Still, it's interesting to speculate on it.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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