Life has been discovered in space, but experts aren’t sure how the microscopic marine plankton got onto the outside of the International Space Station.
Life has been discovered in space, but experts aren’t sure how the microscopic marine plankton got onto the outside of the International Space Station.
Researchers from Russia found the life forms during an analysis of samples taken from the exterior of the space station.
Plankton can be found in various places across our planet.
Recent findings indicate that they have been able to survive and develop without oxygen in the harsh environment of space with extreme temperatures, zero gravity, and cosmic radiation.
Vladimir Solovyev, the head of the Russian International Space Station orbital mission is quoted as saying: “The results of the experiment are absolutely unique. We have found traces of sea plankton and microscopic particles on the illuminator surface.”
These kinds of organisms are not normally found in Baikonur, Kazakhstan where the space station was launched from.
Uplifting air currents might have brought the plankton to the International Space Station from the ocean.
Or they could be caused by contamination from other spacecrafts that have visited during the nearly six thousand days the space station has been orbiting Earth.
