DNA From Outer Space

     Sitting with a few beers at a campfire on a warm summer night, i can only imagine that many people ponder how life came to this planet.  What else would there be to talk about? Well a team of Swiss and German scientists have completed studies that produce clues that it could have been possible for the first DNA to come from outer space.  Early in the Earth's history, meteorites and asteroids hit the planet.  The popular thought until now was that anything that entered our atmosphere reached extreme temperatures and could not survive. 

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The scientists dotted a rocket with DNA fragments inside the exterior grooves.  Once the flight of the rocket was concluded, they tested the stability of the genetic material.  The flight consisted of a 13 minute round trip with exit and reentry into the atmosphere.  They found that the DNA that could create life survived the trip intact. The scientists did note that the experiment could not fully replicate the speed and temperature of a meteorite colliding with earth.  It does prove that a civilization could be contaminated with DNA on the outside of a spaceship.  Bacteria was already known to survive certain similar conditions.This of course does not prove or disprove any evidence of how life was started on earth or anywhere else if there is life on other planets.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dna-can-survive-reentry-from-space/

http://www.ibtimes.com/nasa-dna-found-meteorites-indicates-life-may-have-originated-space-828233

DNA Can Survive Entry Into Earth's Atmosphere

     Recent studies have tried launching a rocket into space to test whether entry into the Earth's atmosphere would degrade plasmid DNA that was coated onto the rocket before launch. This DNA was coated onto the rocket for the TEXUS-49 mission's research rocket mission. They were trying to prove that because DNA could survive such intense conditions, it may be possible that DNA could be transferred via meteorite or asteroid.
     This study's results indicated that when the rocket had returned to space, the plasmids that were extracted from the rocket were tested to transfer genetic material to bacterial DNA and connective tissue cell DNA. The plasmids did in fact work as expected indicating that the DNA did survive and that DNA can survive the most extreme conditions.
     I think this study was interesting because with the expansion of the universe now being measured, who knows where we could have all originated. There are plenty of hypotheses related to the creation of man, and there are plenty of supported ones to say that asteroids had transferred organic material to our planet to start ours out. Interesting to think about, but I get excited when more research like this comes out.

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DNA survives critical entry into Earth's atmosphere

          A team of scientists from UZH discovered that DNA can survive a flight through space and re-enter Earth's atmosphere during an experiment on the TEXUS-49 research rocket mission. The DNA was applied to the outer shell of the payload section of a rocket using pipettes and flew into space from Earth and back again. After the mission, the DNA was still found on the application points of the rocket and was still able to transfer genetic information to cells, proving DNA is able to survive in extreme conditions. 

        

        The scientists got the idea to put DNA on the rocket from studying the role of gravity in the regulation of gene expression in human cells using remote-controlled hardware inside the rocket's payload. During preparations for this experiment, researchers began to wonder if the outer structure of the rocket might be suitable for stability tests on biosignatures. 

       Quickly improvised, the experiment was supposed to merely be a pretest to check the stability of biomarkers during space flight and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Scientists were surprised to find the DNA completely intact and functioning, proving DNA can survive in very harsh conditions. 

      This experiment is interesting not only because of its spontaneity, but because of the results produced. The fact that DNA can survive in space proves the greatness of the molecule and opens the door to possible life on other planets.

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