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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Physical Isolation of Endospores from Environmental Samples by Targeted Lysis of Vegetative Cells
Published on: January 21, 2016
Astrophysical and biological constraints on radiopanspermia
J Secker1, P S Wesson, J R Lepock
1McMaster University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hamilton. secker@delta.math.wsu.edu
Abstract:
We have carried out a series of calculations involving bacteria and viruses embedded in dust grains, which are ejected from our solar system by radiation pressure and travel through space to other star systems. Under many conditions this type of panspermia is impractical, primarily because the ultraviolet (UV) radiation of the present Sun inactivates the micro-organisms. However, if the organisms are shielded by an absorbing material like carbon and if ejection takes place in the red-giant phase of a one solar mass star like our Sun, there is a significant probability that the micro-organisms can reach another star system alive (i.e. with only sub-lethal damage from UV and ionizing radiation). In addition to panspermia with viable micro-organisms, it is possible to seed the Galaxy with inactivated ones whose DNA and RNA fragments may provide the initial information necessary to start biological evolution in favourable environments.
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