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©NASA
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Bacteria, known to be capable of thriving in extremely harsh environments, could have traveled through space on comets. If even one microbe survived space travel to Earth, it would be enough to start a colony on our planet.
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Fans of extraterrestrial life may have been disappointed when internet-fed rumors of Martian life ended in a
NASA press conference on soil composition.
But they can take solace in a newly popular theory that suggests the rest of space may teem with microbes.
This once-controversial notion holds that the universe is filled with the ingredients of microbial life, and that earthly life first came from the skies as comet dust or meteorites salted with hardy bacteria.