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Microbial expansion in the Archeozoic as the basis for searching and interpreting extraterrestrial analogues

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In the fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.

L. Pasteur

Abstract

Over the past several decades, scientists have been trying to figure out whether earthlike life could emerge on other planets. Meteorites that have fallen on the Earth can help find an answer to this question. Using state-of-the-art methods, the authors of this article have compared the vestiges of biological activity found in astronomical bodies with cyanobacteria from the earliest sedimentary rocks. The morphological, biogeochemical, and isotopic indicators of microbial life on the early Earth make it possible to use the accumulated experience in searching for and identifying extraterrestrial life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Hydrophysical Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

    Aleksandr Sergeevich Lopukhin

Authors
  1. Manfred Gerhard Schidlowski
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  2. Aleksandr Sergeevich Lopukhin
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Correspondence to Aleksandr Sergeevich Lopukhin.

Additional information

Original Russian Text © M.G. Schidlowski, A.S. Lopukhin, 2014, published in Vestnik Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, 2014, Vol. 84, No. 8, pp. 724–734.

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Schidlowski, M.G., Lopukhin, A.S. Microbial expansion in the Archeozoic as the basis for searching and interpreting extraterrestrial analogues. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 84, 310–319 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331614040078

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