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Science & Technology

Microbes survive 553 days in space

By T.K. Randall
August 24, 2010 · Comment icon 5 comments

Image Credit: NASA
Bacteria placed outside the International Space Station was found to be still alive after 553 days in space.
The discovery could help pave the way for life support systems based on using bacteria to recycle everything, it also suggests primitive life could have survived a journey through space on as asteroid or comet.
The bugs were put on the exterior of the space station to see how they would cope in the hostile conditions that exist above the Earth's atmosphere. And when scientists inspected the microbes a year and a half later, they found many were still alive.


Source: BBC News | Comments (5)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by mutationman 14 years ago
Quite interesting that these bacteria can survive in open space, lends credence to the panspermia theory.
Comment icon #2 Posted by stevewinn 14 years ago
well didn't they do something similar with a fly or flies. and they managed to live a while out in space?
Comment icon #3 Posted by Bamboo Samurai 14 years ago
i thought we already knew bacteria could live in space on a asteroid or comet? or was that all theory until now?
Comment icon #4 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 14 years ago
i thought we already knew bacteria could live in space on a asteroid or comet? or was that all theory until now? That is still only hypothesis.
Comment icon #5 Posted by :PsYKoTiC:BeHAvIoR: 14 years ago
Wow, that's disturbing to know potential lethal variations of bacterias has the possibility to lie dormant and alive somewhere in or out of this Earth. Imagine having the first man on Mars someday only to bring back a bacteria that got in contact with its space suit.


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