With this knowledge and understanding, life may be able to adapt and live in numerous different environments and in different forms, not just in the form of bacteria. .
Recently, scientists have discovered that when the simplest chemicals are exposed to the conditions of space, the molecules arrange themselves into hollow structures that look closely like cell membranes ("Link"). Louis Allamandola of NASA Research Center, who headed the study, said, "Scientists believe that the molecules needed to make a cell's membrane, and thus for the origin of life, are all over space, this discovery implies that life could be everywhere in the universe" ("Link"). What this is saying is that life's early stages could have occurred in space and traveled to whatever environment it chooses. As a result from this, life could have sprung up anywhere where the location suited its survival. But the question that arises is if life really did begin in the universe and travel to other planets, how did this traveling occur? .
In space exploration today, there is one theory that has the most evidence and proof behind that most likely it did occur. This theory is called the panspermia theory. It states that life evolved in space and reached the Earth by the transportation of comets, but only as simple compounds would these materials have traveled ("But, Not"). Newly discovered "space bugs" provide strong support for the panspermia theory suggesting that life on Earth may have come in the form of germs or spores. Still, it seems very amazing that extremely minute molecules can survive that long trip in a flaming comet. Scientists believe that extremely small molecules have adapted years ago to be able to survive the intense conditions of a comet's head (Reaney). Just imagine for a moment that when the Earth was still forming, small microbes landed there in boiling pools of water or other incubators. From these little microbes, the human race may have evolved over hundreds of billions of years ("Reaney").