THE NEEDLESS SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL FOSSILS ON EARTH

Abstract

The search for extraterrestrial life was recently intensified because of new space missions. As long as life has not been found elsewhere in the universe, the best chances to discover extraterrestrial life are considered to be in the study of meteorites. The finding of traces of life on meteorites has been claimed several times, but all claims so far have appeared unjustified. One of the problems is that it is not known how possible extraterrestrial life developed, nor on the basis of which chemical, biochemical and energetic basis this may have taken place. It is argued that possible traces of life that differ fundamentally from life on Earth will not be recognized with the knowledge we have nowadays; traces of life that do not differ fundamentally from those on earth will not be recognized as extraterrestrial, either because such life may have originated on Earth (and have made a space trip afterwards), or because life on Earth may have come from the same source from where the life forms on the meteorite were derived. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.