Cosmic dust can knock living creatures out of the atmosphere.

The cosmic dust particles that pass by Earth every day could propel living things in the atmosphere into space.

Every day, 60 tons of cosmic dust collides with Earth. Photo: Newsweek

New research suggests that cosmic dust can penetrate Earth’s atmosphere and propel living organisms into space, traveling within the solar system and even to other star systems, Newsweek reported on November 20. The study, published in the journal Astrobiology, was conducted by Arjun Berera, a particle physicist at the University of Edinburgh.

About 60 tons of cosmic dust hits Earth every day. This dust may have helped Earth’s atmosphere form and plants grow. Some of the dust particles hit the Earth straight away, others just graze. These dust particles are very small and travel at extremely fast speeds, sometimes as fast as 232,000 km/h.

Berera calculates that the dust stream could be powerful enough to hit and propel small living organisms in Earth’s atmosphere into space. This force could send them flying to other planets in the solar system, or even to nearby star systems.

New research is based on the phenomenon of some small living organisms that exist in the outer layers of the Earth's atmosphere, according to Newsweek. Scientists say they can also affect the weather. Even if they are too large to survive being ejected from Earth, smaller particles that are essential for life will be ejected from the atmosphere when they collide with cosmic dust.

Berera suggests that dust particles passing by Earth could sweep these bacteria and smaller particles out of the atmosphere and into space, where they could attach to other celestial bodies, such as comets, and continue their journey into space.

Berera is cautious about the new research. He notes that escaping Earth's atmosphere is not easy. The subsequent space travel would also be very difficult and the process of escaping the solar system could kill living organisms.

However, if this hypothesis is correct, then the matter on Earth being thrown into space would happen every day, unlike the rare case of meteorites crashing down and also pushing some matter on Earth into space.

According to VNE