Advances in Astrophysics

Download PDF (264.6 KB) PP. 214 - 215 Pub. Date: August 18, 2017

DOI: 10.22606/adap.2017.23006

• N. Chandra Wickramasinghe^*
  Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK
  Centre for Astrobiology, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka
• Gensuke Tokoro
  
  Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astroeconomics, Gifu, Japan
• Edward J. Steele
  
  CY O'Connor ERADE Village Foundation, Piara Waters,WA, Australia

A new theory of the formation of the Moon predominantly from Earth material, combined with the recent discovery of surface water reopens the possibility that microbial life might exist close to the lunar surface.

Moon formation, water on the moon, bacteria, panspermia.

[1] Bell EA, Boehnke P, Harrison T et al (2015). Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon, PNAS, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1517557112.

[2] Mastrobuono-Battisi A, Perets HB & Raymond SN (2015). A primordial origin for the compositional similarity between the Earth and Moon, Nature, 520, 212-215.

[3] Piddington, JH and Minnett, HC, 1949, Microwave Thermal Radiation from the Moon, Australian J. Sci. Res., A, 2: 63.

[4] Sagan, C., 1961. Organic Matter and the Moon, Report of Panel on Extra-Terrestrial Life for the Armed Forces- NR http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18476

[5] Sridharan, R. et al (2010). Direct detection of water H2O in sunlit ambience from CHACE on MIP of Chadrayaan 1. Planet Sp.Sci., 58, 947-950.