Exporting Terrestrial Life Out of the Solar System with Gravitational Slingshots of Earthgrazing Bodies

TL;DR

This paper investigates a novel natural mechanism where Earthgrazing bodies could potentially export terrestrial microbes into space via gravitational slingshots, especially if microbes are present above 100 km altitude.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that Earthgrazing comets and interstellar objects could naturally transport life out of the Solar System through gravitational interactions.

Findings

Estimated 1-10 export events for long-period comets.

Estimated 1-50 export events for interstellar objects.

Over 100 km altitude, potential exportation up to 10^5 times.

Abstract

Exporting terrestrial life out of the Solar System requires a process that both embeds microbes in boulders and ejects those boulders out of the Solar System. We explore the possibility that Earthgrazing long-period comets and interstellar objects could export life from Earth by collecting microbes from the atmosphere and receiving a gravitational slingshot effect from the Earth. We estimate the total number of exportation events over the lifetime of the Earth to be $\sim 1 - 10$ for long-period comets and $\sim 1 - 50$ for interstellar objects. If life existed above an altitude of 100 km, then the number is dramatically increased up to $\sim 10^5$ exportation events over Earth's lifetime.