Cosmic dust can knock living things out of the atmosphere

Cosmic dust particles that pass by Earth every day can 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 could plow through Earth’s atmosphere and propel living things into space, traveling throughout 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 form the Earth’s atmosphere and help plants grow. Some of the dust particles hit the Earth directly, while others just graze. These dust particles are very small and travel at extremely fast speeds, sometimes reaching nearly 232,000 km/h.

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

The new study 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 the Earth, smaller particles that are essential for life will still 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 no easy task. The subsequent space travel would also be fraught with obstacles, and the process of leaving 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