Bacterial Spores Survive Simulated Meteorite Impact

Details Bacterial Spores Survive Simulated Meteorite Impact Bacterial Spores Survive Simulated Meteorite Impact

Jan 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001icar..149..285h&link_type=abstract

Icarus, Volume 149, Issue 1, pp. 285-290 (2001).

Physics

34

Scientific paper

A hypothetical interplanetary transfer of viable microorganisms requires that the microbes survive the following steps: (i) escape process, (ii) transient journey in space, and (iii) entry process. Step 1 involves hypervelocity impact under strong shock metamorphism of the ejected microbe-bearing rock fragment. This paper reports experimental studies on the survival of microbes after a simulated meteorite impact. In shock recovery experiments with an explosive setup, spores of Bacillus subtilis HA 101, immobilized between two quartz plates, were subjected to a peak shock pressure of 32 GPa. Although the spore layer showed an intense darkening after the shock treatment, up to 500 spores per sample survived, resulting in a survival rate up to 10-4. This experimental pressure is in the pressure range which some martian meteorites have experienced according to well-calibrated shock effects of their mineral constituents. The data support the hypothesis that bacterial spores may survive an impact-induced escape process in a scenario of interplanetary transfer of life.

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