All articles tagged with #microbial survival
NASA-led modelling shows that some lunar south-polar shadows can shield microbes from UV and heat, allowing dormant Earth fungi and bacteria to remain viable for days to weeks, possibly months in favorable conditions. This is not evidence of lunar life: no metabolism, no water, and the result is location- and time-specific, intended to inform contamination baselines and planetary-protection policies.
Scientists discovered 26 new bacterial species in NASA's sterile cleanrooms, which despite rigorous cleaning, harbor microbes with survival strategies that could potentially withstand space travel and contaminate Mars, prompting further testing in a planetary simulation chamber to assess their resilience under space-like conditions.
A study suggests that if life ever existed on Mars, traces of it could be preserved in the planet's subsurface ice for up to 50 million years, making it a promising target for future missions to find ancient microbial biomolecules.