Seth Shostak, director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI), suggests that life on Earth originated from a huge asteroid that collided with Mars and scattered its debris throughout the solar system.
“It is possible that billions of years ago, small biological particles left the Red Planet and took root on Earth,” Shostak said. "If so, then the family tree of any life form on Earth originated not in its ancient oceans, but in the disappeared seas of Mars."
A theory known as panspermia states that some microorganisms are able to survive in the lifeless space between planets. Then, having got to the Earth, these embryos of life evolved and, in the end, became the progenitors of people.
“Scientists have calculated that in the early days of the formation of the solar system, billions of particles ranging in size from one millimeter to huge debris of rocks ply erratically between Mars and Earth,” Shostak said.
According to Seth, young Mars in those days was more humid and warmer, and could be home to many living things, while the Earth was completely lifeless.
"If so many Martian rocks were thrown into space, then it is highly likely that at least some of them could have landed in the most suitable place for life on Earth," added Shostak.
Voronina Svetlana