No, the new coronavirus didn’t come from outer space. We promise.
With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to spread around the globe, people are panicked, and they’re looking for answers and explanations. One wild theory that has made its way around the web is that the virus came from space.
Spoiler alert: The virus did not come from space.
Recently, Chandra Wickramasinghe, known for his work in astronomy and astrobiology, spread the idea that the virus was living on a comet and a piece of that space rock may have fallen to Earth during a brief fireball event over China in October 2019. He further implied that comets carrying viruses may have caused outbreaks in the past as well.
It would be unprecedented to discover that a virus could survive the radiation it would be exposed to on such a long journey through space (never mind the trip back to Earth) and still be able to infect humans after it landed, astrobiologist Graham Lau, who hosts NASA’s “Ask an Astrobiologist” series, told Space.com. However, while it would be an incredibly unique and groundbreaking finding if this were true, Wickramasinghe simply does not have evidence to support his claims, Lau said.