TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

The meteorite which killed the dinosaurs may have seeded the solar system—and even Gliese 581—with life-bearing earth material:

But perhaps most surprising is the amount that makes its way across interstellar space. Last year, we looked at calculations suggesting that more Earth ejecta must end up in interstellar space than all the other planets combined.

Hara and co go further and estimate how much ought to have made its way to Gliese 581, a red dwarf some 20 light years from here that is thought to have a super-Earth orbiting at the edge of the habitable zone.

They say about a thousand Earth-rocks from this event would have made the trip, taking about a million years to reach their destination.

The study concludes that Jupiter’s moon Europa would have picked up nearly as much as our own Moon, because Jupiter’s gravity sucks in so much material passing by.

Incredible to think about.