panspermia

panspermia means the hypothesis that microorganisms may transmit life from outer space to habitable bodies; or the process of such transmission.

Why “panspermia” is a great word

The hypothesis that life exists throughout the universe and is distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. From New Latin panspermia, from Greek panspermía, from pan- ("all") + spermíā ("seed"), first attested 1835–45. Unlike "abiogenesis," which addresses the origin of life from non-living matter on a single world, or "panspermy," which more narrowly denotes a biological theory of universal germ dispersal, panspermia is a grand astrobiological vision of life as cosmic cargo. It is the bacterial spore frozen in a comet's icy heart, the resilient microbe sealed in rock ejected from a Martian impact, the unseen passenger on a robotic lander—life not born but delivered, a lonely and persistent infection of the sterile void.

Etymology

From panspermy + -ia.

noun

The hypothesis that microorganisms may transmit life from outer space to habitable bodies; or the process of such transmission.“Lederberg's ideas were tinged with Cold War paranoia. In his hands, panspermia came to resemble horizontal gene transfer on a cosmic scale.”

Words closest in meaning

By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.

panspermatism 92% match — The obsolete theory that germs are omnipresent. vs panspermia →
lithopanspermia 90% match — The transfer of life-bearing rocks, ejected from one planet, onto the surface of another. vs panspermia →
exogenesis 89% match — The theory that life on Earth is of extraterrestrial origin. vs panspermia →
cosmozoa 89% match — hypothetical seeds or spores that led to the beginning of life, said to have reached Earth through space vs panspermia →
abiogenesis 86% match — The origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; such genesis as does not involve the action of living parents. vs panspermia →
xenobiology 84% match — The speculative biology of extraterrestrial life forms. vs panspermia →
exobiology 82% match — The branch of biology dealing with exolife: (putative or predicted) extraterrestrial lifeforms (those originating from planets other than Earth). vs panspermia →
panvitalism 82% match — Belief that all things are part of a single living universe. vs panspermia →