Asteroids likely seeded early Earth and Mars with the prebiotic compounds needed for life.

“The latter is certainly more or less what we've kind of been leaning towards here and that the asteroids themselves could be seeding Mars and Earth with the prebiotic compounds that are needed for life to have evolved.”

Life on Earth may have originated from Mars via microorganisms transported by rocks ejected from the Martian surface.

“there were tiny astronauts inside rocks that were chipped off the surface of Mars that arrived to Earth and seeded the earth with life as we know it”

Asteroids likely provided the building blocks for life, such as amino acids, to early Earth, where a hospitable watery environment enabled life to develop.

“it might be that that is how life got to Earth and and then you know the building blocks for life and then they had this lovely watery Rich environment where stuff could start forming”

Aomawa Shields claims that the scientific definition of habitability must be broad enough to include non-Earth-like life rather than focusing solely on Earth-like conditions.

“we can't be so Earth focused that we miss discovering life because of that”

Researchers should look for a variety of biosignatures beyond oxygen, including potential industrial pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, as signs of life may evolve or appear in ways that are not immedi

“there's all kinds of things that if they produce life, we might miss it because we don't know how to look for things that aren't familiar to us, but there are lots of interesting signatures of life that we can look for that go beyond oxygen and ozone and methane, right? You can look for nitrogen dio”