In an astounding discovery, scientists believe they have found evidence of bacteria from outer space on the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.
If the finding is confirmed, it will be the strongest evidence yet that life evolved in space and reached Earth via comets.
The evidence comes from experiments in which air samples containing floating particles were collected by balloons 27 miles above the Earth’s surface, on the edge of space.
Sophisticated sampling devices were used to keep the “alien” air in sterile conditions to avoid contamination.
Scientists at Cardiff University in Wales are now attempting to grow cultures from the air and examine their DNA.
Professor David Lloyd, who led the analysis of the samples, said: “It may be they are just terrestrial bacteria, but we don’t know how they could have got up to these heights.”