Modelling an Extraterrestrial Epidemic

Panspermia is the theory that life has been transported between bodies in the solar system by means of asteroid or cometary impact. Assuming that panspermia is true, and that genetically related microbial life exists outside of our planet, then it is possible that such life could pose an infectious threat to the terrestrial biosphere. We offer several assumptions of the characteristics that such life might possess and extrapolate the likely epidemiological compartment approach to be applied when attempting to model the impact of an Earthly epidemic originating from an extraterrestrial pathogen.