科学家称发现外星生命存在迹象.

　　据英国《每日邮报》9月10日报道，英国科学家声称，在将一个气球送入27公里的平流层后，他们发现了外星生命存在的迹象。

　　74岁的维克拉玛星教授和谢菲尔德大学的团队在英仙座流星雨经过时将一个特别设计的气球放入柴郡上空的大气层。气球上携带着显微镜载玻片，它们只暴露在大气层27公里的高度。

　　当气球返回地面后，科学家们发现了遗留在显微镜载玻片上的微型藻类海洋生物。维克拉玛星教授声称，这个有机体的结构，只能是外星体，它应该是由途经的流星带向各个星球的。

　　他们的这一发现上个月发表在在美国圣地亚哥宇宙生物学相关的会议集上。

　　Scientists claim to have found evidence of ALIEN LIFE: Balloon sent to edge of atmosphere picks up organisms ‘that can only have come from space’

　　Scientists found algae after sending a balloon into the stratosphere

　　Claim the algae could only have come from space or a volcanic eruption

　　This could provide evidence that the &aposseeds of life&apos exist all over the Universe and travel from one planet to another via meteors

　　British scientists believe they have found evidence alien life after sending a balloon to the edge of space.

　　The team of scientists sent a balloon 27km into the stratosphere and captured small biological organisms they say can only have come from space.

　　The group, headed up by astrobiologist Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, claims the &aposseeds of life&apos have been transported between planets by passing meteors.

　　Professor Wickramasinghe, 74, and his team from the University of Shfield sent a specially designed balloon into the atmosphere above Chester during the annual Perseid meteor shower.

　　The balloon was carrying sterile microscope slides which were only exposed to the atmosphere at heights of 27km.

　　When the balloon fell back down to Earth the scientists discovered microscopic aquatic(水生的) algae on the microscope slides - which they say can only be alien life forms.

　　Their findings were published in a paper during the Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology conference in San Diego, USA, last month.

　　Prof Wickramasinghe said: &aposBiological entities of this nature have not previously been reported occurring in the stratosphere.

　　&aposThe entities varied from a presumptive colony of ultra-small bacteria to two unusual individual organisms - part of a diatom frustule and a 200 micron-sized particle mass interlaced with biofilm and biological filaments.&apos

　　He said these findings were evidence for the theory of &aposcometary panspermia&apos.

　　This states that the &aposseeds of life&apos exist all over the Universe and travel through space from one planet to another.

　　Sceptics believe &aposbiological entities&apos captured in the stratosphere could have been carried high into the atmosphere from Earth - and not from space.

　　But Prof Wickramasinghe said: &aposThe biological entities found are particles of relatively large size and mass.

　　&aposBy our current understanding of the means by which such particles can be transferred from Earth to the stratosphere they could not - in the absence of a violent volcanic eruption occurring within a day of the sampling event - make such a journey.

　　&aposIf there is no mechanism by which these biological entities could be elevated from Earth to the stratosphere then it must have arrived from above the stratosphere and have been incoming to Earth.&apos

　　The Sri Lankan-born British mathematician, astronomer and astrobiologist is one of the leading proponents of the theory of cometary panspermia.

　　Panspermia is Greek for &aposseeds everywhere&apos.

　　The panspermia theory states that seeds of life can be spread through space from one location to another. and that life on Earth may have originated through this process.

　　It requires meteors blasted from a planet’s surface serve to act as transfer vehicles for spreading biological material from one planet to another.