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Asked by thus1red on 27 Mar 2024.
Question: Are we aliens
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Michael C Macey answered on 2 Apr 2024:
This is a fun question! Sheridan is correct that the term is relative, so if there was life on other planets we would be alien! However, whilst we are Terrestial life/Life that has evolved on Earth, the Earth was supplied with some essential components (like Ice water) by meteorites that bombarded into our surface and there are even some (potentially not well supported) suggestions that life could have started elsewhere and been transported to Earth via meteorite.
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Sophie Morse answered on 12 Apr 2024:
Good question. I guess we are aliens for others in the universe.
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Andrew M commented on :
There is an idea called Panspermia that life started elsewhere and was carried to Earth in comets and meteorites, which would make some or all life on Earth alien. However, it lacks evidence and isn’t generally favoured. All life on Earth discovered so far seems to be related to each other in some way or another, even if distantly. There’s not been any evidence of unrelated life. It might be argued that life arrived as a single seeding event and then diverged, but only if we could find life on another planet, say Mars, and then show that it also shared a common ancestor with life on Earth would there be evidence to support the idea. Panspermia is sometimes seen as a way around the the old question “How did life arise on Earth”, but it’s not a good answer, it just leads to the question “How did life arise elsewhere then?”.
There is evidence for some of the molecules critical to life in space. Simple sugar-like molecules, simple amino acids for proteins and nucleobases for R/DNA but these are not life, just some things life uses.
stephaniebayne commented on :
Only to an alien! An excellent question.