OT: Invasion !?

[oleg]

Nothing to do with TV show, but real life:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/02/red.rain/index.html

[Combat Wombat]

oh I was hoping someone cared about my mod http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Any microbe that was adapted to outer space most likely would implode in earths' atmosphere, in my opinion.

[capnq]

They could just as easily be adapted to Earth's upper atmosphere rather than vacuum. That would make them just strange, rather than alien.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Actually, that makes more sense. The upper atmosphere (Way past the mountains) could be hot - Dunno, havn't read anything about that.

[Xaren Hypr]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Actually, that makes more sense. The upper atmosphere (Way past the mountains) could be hot - Dunno, havn't read anything about that.



You are more right than you realize (whoa, a smart mouse..whodathunk http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ). The full details are here (http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/atmosphere.html), but the region of the atmosphere that you're indirectly referring to is the (aptly named) thermosphere.


The thermosphere starts just above the mesosphere and extends to 600 kilometers (372 miles) high. The temperatures go up as you increase in altitude due to the Sun's energy. Temperatures in this region can go as high as 1,727 degrees Celsius. Chemical reactions occur much faster here than on the surface of the Earth. This layer is known as the upper atmosphere.

[dogscoff]

Woo! Andromeda strain anyone?

Seriously though, even if these things to turn out to be extraterrestrial in origin, that doesn't prove that life on Earth _was_ seeded from outer space- just that it could have been.

There was some research published recently that showed how meteorites and whatnot could have carried life from Earth to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter - we could have seeded them with life! How cool would that be?

[EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro]

Reminds me of a book I read where an alien ecology slowly takes over our own. Eventually the Earth can't support terran life and the Aliens move in without a shot being fired (or zapped). David Gerrold's War Against The Chtorr series.
Start looking for weird diseases to pop up in India.

[Black_Knyght]

I saw this awhile back, and thought it was weird. I'm sure they eventually settle on a more "terrestrial" origin for it though.