A staggering novel story fromThe Expressclaims that coronavirus has most likely fall to Earth on a meteorite . Speaking to astrobiologist Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe , of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology , the connection C. W. Post lay claim that afireballthat cut up in northerly China last October is the most likely source , despite there having been no write up of meteorites found on the flat coat .
Panspermia is the theory that being trapped in meteorites can install themselves on a satellite they crash into , allow the meteorite does n’t burn up all and the organism can hold the shape on the ground . These meteoroid - surf extremophiles are hypothesise to be capable to survive the harsh conditions of outer space , something that has only so far been take care in tardigrades within the animal kingdom . But what about viruses ?
“ The most compelling evidence that SARS - CoV-2 did n’t come from a meteorite is that it is so nearly related to other known coronaviruses , ” Dr Dominic Sparkes , a specialist in infectious diseases , told IFLScience . “ It ’s closely relate to the SARS ( severe acuate respiratory syndrome ) virus that induce an outbreak in the early 2000s and the MERS ( mediate Eastern respiratory syndrome ) virus which still causes disease presently . ”
For the SARS - CoV-2 computer virus to have come up from a meteorite , it would have to have evolve in gross tandem to these fuck coronaviruses to apportion so many of their characteristic . meteorite are often sherd of asteroid that have remained unchanged for billions of years , so it would seem vastly unlikely that , suspended in the harsh conditions of space , a virus could have evolve to look exactly like two terrene coronaviruses .
Furthermore , these closely related coronaviruses were both tie in to animal - to - human transmission system . “ SARS was discover to be the result of bat transferring computer virus to civet cats which transferred on to humankind , while MERS is lie with to be passed on to humankind from camels , ” tell Dr Sparkes . “ It therefore is far less of a leap to don the tight - related SARS - CoV-2 computer virus has been snuff it on to humans in the same way . ” particularly when you consider the point of origination is yoke to a market selling the substance and carcasses of wild creature .
But , for the saki of argument , let ’s say somehow SARS - CoV-2 did independently evolve on a rock in space hurtling around the cosmos . For this meteorite to reach China it would first have to enter our atmosphere . Meteorites that do n’t decompose on introduction typically reach temperatures of about 1,648 ° century ( 1,198 ° F ) . Could our space pathogen survive this journeying ?
“ There are thermophilic bacterium , named because of their ability to make it at high temperatures , but ordinarily these temperatures set out from 40 - 122 ° C(104 - 252 ° fluorine ) , not 1,648 ° C , ” Dr Sparkes order . “ The most dauntless pathogen we screw are prion . prion are transmittable misfolded proteins which are very difficult to uproot . ”
prion have Creutzfeldt - Jacob disease ( CJD ) , a rare and fatal neurodegenerative precondition causing speedily progressing brain damage . symptom include departure of memory , balance wheel , and coordination as well as vision and manner of speaking trouble with progressive loss of brainiac function and mobility . Most sufferers die within a year of diagnosis .
Precautions taken with confirmed case of CJD are such that no one ever re - use the instruments used to perform medical procedure because of care that conventional heat discourse and autoclave wo n’t work . “ Having say that , our autoclaving procedures increase hotness to 180 ° C ( 356 ° F ) , which is sufficient to kill all other known pathogens , but not significantly higher , ” Dr Sparkes continue . “ I think it ’s exceedingly unlikely that even a prion would survive at temperature of above 1,000 ° C(1,832 ° F ) as it would belike denature the protein , but I ’m not sure whether this study has been done . ”
Occam ’s razor tell that entities should not be multiplied needlessly , that is , investigator should avoid ' stacking ' information to prove a convoluted theory if a uncomplicated explanation fit the facts . A virus closely related to two other virus that spread from animals to humans is far more likely to have itself spread from animals to humans than it is to have come from distance . Running the headline “ Coronavirus came from METEORITE ” might be one pocket-size step for a questionable newspaper , but it ’s a giant leaping for bogus news .
Stick to the fact as we search how effectiveface masksare against SARS - CoV-2 , and find out what thisvirusactually looks like .
