The panspermia hypothesis does not attempt to explain how life first originated but merely shifts the origin to another planet or a comet. The advantage of an extraterrestrial origin of primitive life is that life is not required to have formed on each planet it occurs on, but rather in a single location, and then spread about the [[galaxy]] to other star systems via cometary and/or meteorite impact.<ref name="NYT-20160912">{{cite news |last=Chang |first=Kenneth |title=Visions of Life on Mars in Earth's Depths |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/science/south-african-mine-life-on-mars.html |date=12 September 2016 |work=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=12 September 2016 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912225220/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/science/south-african-mine-life-on-mars.html |archivedate=12 September 2016}}</ref> | The panspermia hypothesis does not attempt to explain how life first originated but merely shifts the origin to another planet or a comet. The advantage of an extraterrestrial origin of primitive life is that life is not required to have formed on each planet it occurs on, but rather in a single location, and then spread about the [[galaxy]] to other star systems via cometary and/or meteorite impact.<ref name="NYT-20160912">{{cite news |last=Chang |first=Kenneth |title=Visions of Life on Mars in Earth's Depths |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/science/south-african-mine-life-on-mars.html |date=12 September 2016 |work=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=12 September 2016 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912225220/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/science/south-african-mine-life-on-mars.html |archivedate=12 September 2016}}</ref> |