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Glite Dictionary
panspermia

panspermia

1 9.9
The idea that life exists in space and came to Earth on rocks or dust from space
  • noun
  • /pænˈspɜrmiə/
  • Specialized
: panspermia
  • This idea of the wide diaspora of life is called panspermia, a term coined by Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius in 1903.
  • panspermia hypothesis—that life

So the panspermia story would be that life appeared somewhere on another planet, not Earth.

Examples

  • The idea that life on Earth was seeded by extraterrestrial spores, as opposed to originating on Earth, is called panspermia.

    Academic text (2001)

  • This idea of the wide diaspora of life is called panspermia, a term coined by Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius in 1903.

  • So the panspermia story would be that life appeared somewhere on another planet, not Earth.

    Danny Jones

  • But for travel between the planets within a particular system, panspermia seems entirely possible.

    Academic text (2003)

  • We call this notion panspermia, that life gets transmitted from one world to another.

    Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

  • The idea that life on Earth was seeded by extraterrestrial spores, as opposed to originating on Earth, is called panspermia.

  • But for travel between the planets within a particular system, panspermia seems entirely possible.

Surface Forms

panspermia singular
panspermias plural

Morphology

panspermia = pansperm (semi-transparent) = pan + sperm + ia

The suffix '-ia' forms nouns, but the scientific context of panspermia is not immediately obvious.

Etymology

The word panspermia comes from Greek parts pan- meaning 'all' and sperma meaning 'seed', so it gives the image of 'seeds all over' the universe. That's why the idea says life could be spread to planets by tiny living things carried on rocks, comets, or dust.