Clumps of bacteria could spread life between planets
The bacterial exposure experiment took place from 2015 to 2018 using the Exposed Facility located on the exterior of Kibo, the Japanese Experimental Module of the International Space Station. (JAXA/NASA/)For decades, astronomers have theorized microbes could drift through the vastness of space like pollen in the wind, planting the seeds of life across the cosmos. New research from the astrobiology mission “Tanpopo,” appropriately named ‘dandelion’ in Japanese, suggests they very well might be. That would make life much more common in the universe than previously thought.“The origin of life is the biggest mystery of human beings,” says Akihiko Yamagishi, Tokyo University microbiologist, principal investigator of the Tanpopo mission, and lead author of the new paper. He says that the team was able to show microbes would be able to survive the trek from Mars to Earth without shielding from the dangers of space if they clump together.To do so, astrobiologists...