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Coronavirus: No, the virus did not hitch a ride to China from space, say experts rubbishing a bizarre claim

A scientist has claimed that the new coronavirus came from a meteorite that hit China last year. The theory does not hold water because evidence suggests that the new coronavirus jumped from animals to humans
UPDATED MAR 19, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

A scientist has claimed that the new coronavirus has a space connection. The virus reportedly arrived in China after hitching a ride on a meteor. The meteor, according to him, exploded in a brief flash in North-East China, a claim that has been rubbished by experts. There is no evidence of meteorites on the ground in China, experts said.

And the new coronavirus is so closely related to other known earth-bound coronaviruses that it could not have come from a meteor, Dr. Dominic Sparkes, a specialist in infectious diseases, told IFLScience. “It’s closely related to the SARS virus that caused an outbreak in the early 2000s and the MERS virus which still causes disease currently," he added.

The scientist behind the meteor theory is an astrobiologist named Chandra Wickramasinghe from the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology. He is a proponent of Panspermia, a theory which suggests that meteors carry organisms. Once these space rocks crash into the Earth, the organisms take off, establishing themselves on the planet. 

Coronavirus has sickened more than 90,000 people globally. (NIAID-RML via AP)

Space is hostile for life

Space is harsh, the conditions there do not support life --except tardigrades or water bears. They have survived harsh conditions: a combination of low pressure and intense radiation found in space. Given the hostility in space, experts believe that it is unlikely that the meteor coronavirus could closely match other coronaviruses found on Earth -- SARS virus, for instance.  

Besides, the theory does not hold water because evidence suggests that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals. This theory raises another question: Can the meteor-virus survive the crash?  It is unlikely because when the space rock hits the ground, it could potentially reach temperatures of about 1,648°C.

Some Earth-dwelling bacteria are sturdy. But they are capable of resisting temperatures of only 40-122°C (104-252°F), not 1,648°C, Dr. Sparkes said.

The most sturdy ones are Prions. "'Prion' is a term first used to describe the mysterious infectious agent responsible for several neurodegenerative diseases found in mammals, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans," Susan Lindquist is a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, told Scientific American. CJD is a rare and fatal condition that causes brain damage.

Even then,  "I think it’s extremely unlikely that even a prion would survive at temperatures of above 1,000°C (1,832°F) as it would likely denature the protein, but I’m not sure whether this study has been done," Sparks added.

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