If the Genesis Mission collects spores from deep space, implying that they are all over the place out there, then it is almost certain that such spores are raining down on Earth by the billions every year, and probably often surviving the trip to the surface of Earth intact. Now what?

It is interesting that NASA is still concerned about Galileo "contaminating" the moons of Jupiter with whatever tiny load of bugs might be on board after a severe years-long cooking in space.

If Galileo impacted on Europa, and somehow these few little bugs did manage to survive the high-speed impact and "contaminate" the moon (on its frozen surface no less, not deep inside where the liquid water may be) then something extremely amazing about the nature of life and its persistence will have been learned, and various "panspermia" type theories strengthened.

I have seen plausible theories that durable life forms could survive being shot from the surface of one planet by meteoric impacts and their subsequent impact on other worlds. If this is true, then life from Earth--billions of years old--may already have been sprayed all over our solar system by ejecta from Earth impacts. If we find life forms on other worlds, genetic analysis will almost certainly reveal any such link if it exists.

Looking forward to more data over the next few years!

Just out of curiosity, did they sterilize the Galileo entry probe?