Their findings are fiercely controversial, but I want to believe in the space algae. Russia Today reports:
Fossilized algae recently discovered inside a Sri Lankan meteorite could finally prove the existence of extra-terrestrial life, claim the authors of the new paper recently published in the Journal of Cosmology.
The paper alleges that “microscopic fossilized diatoms were found in the sample,” which fell in Sri Lanka in December last year. The finding, the work suggests is “strong evidence to support the theory of cometary panspermia.” Panspermia suggests that life could have existed on another planet and moved to Earth.
The finding however has already come under sharp criticism, with astronomers claiming that the meteorite looks more like a rock that could be found on earth as the study provides vague details of the finding. Astronomer and lecturer Phil Plait wrote that the chemical analysis presented “doesn’t prove it’s a carbonaceous chondrite, let alone a meteorite,” and there is “no reason to trust that what they have is a meteorite.”