Advances in Astrophysics

Download PDF (232 KB) PP. 129 - 132 Pub. Date: November 1, 2019

DOI: 10.22606/adap.2019.44001

• Robert Temple
  The History of Chinese Science and Culture Foundation, Conway Hall, London, UK
• Chandra Wickramasinghe
  Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK; Centre for Astrobiology, University of Ruhuna, Matara, SRI LANKA; Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astrobiology, Gifu, JAPAN

Recent astronomical observations combined with dynamical simulations have led to a possible confirmation of the existence of the much disputed stable dust clouds (Kordylewski Dust Clouds) at the Lagrange libration points of the Earth-Moon system. The new data leads to an estimate of the size of the cloud at L5 as well as of the average radii of the scattering/polarizing dust particles in the cloud’s interior. The diameter of the cloud is somewhat less than 3 times the Earth’s diameter, and the average grain radius is estimated at ~ 3  10-5cm, consistent with bacterial-type cells, with a mean separation of less than 1 cm. Such grains, most likely elongated on the average (rod-like bacteria), and photoelectrically charged to a few eV, would acquire a spin through collisions with gas atoms and thus could act as emitters and absorbers of longwave electromagnetic radiation. We speculate that the entire Kordylewski Dust Cloud comprised of such particles has the potential to acquire electromagnetic connectivity with an information storage/processing capacity akin to a form of intelligence.

Kordylewski dust clouds, interplanetary dust, cosmic biology, extraterrestrial intelligence

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