Mosses conquered a few of Earth’s harshest environments lengthy earlier than people arrived. They cling to Himalayan peaks, unfold throughout Antarctic ice, and colonise recent volcanic lava. These historic crops, among the many first to transition from water to land half a billion years in the past, have survived a number of mass extinctions by means of sheer resilience. Researcher Tomomichi Fujita from Hokkaido College questioned if that resilience prolonged past Earth’s environment, so he despatched moss to the final word excessive surroundings – the vacuum of area.
It appears the common-or-garden moss is rather more resilient than we first thought. Researchers have despatched some samples into area and it survived for 9 months (Credit score : IvoShandor)
Area is spectacularly hostile to life. The vacuum would make human blood boil. Cosmic radiation tears by means of unprotected cells. Temperatures swing wildly between extremes. Unfiltered photo voltaic ultraviolet mild breaks down natural molecules with ruthless effectivity. Most organisms, people very a lot included, would die inside seconds of publicity.
The experiment to ship moss into area sounds nearly absurdly easy. In March 2022, lots of of moss sporophytes, tiny capsules containing reproductive spores, launched to the Worldwide Area Station aboard a Cygnus cargo spacecraft. Astronauts hooked up the samples to the station’s exterior, the place they remained totally uncovered to area for 283 days earlier than returning to Earth in January 2023. No safety, no shielding, simply moss versus the universe.
The moss did not merely survive. Over 80 p.c of the spores made it again alive, and all however 11 p.c of survivors germinated efficiently within the lab, rising into wholesome new moss crops. Chlorophyll ranges remained largely regular, with solely a modest 20 p.c discount in a single mild delicate compound that did not have an effect on total spore well being.
Earlier than sending moss into orbit, Fujita’s workforce ran in depth floor exams utilizing spreading earthmoss, a species effectively studied for its genetics and growth. They subjected juvenile moss, specialised stress response stem cells, and the sporophytes to simulated area situations. The juvenile moss died shortly. The stem cells fared higher however nonetheless suffered excessive mortality. The sporophytes proved remarkably powerful, exhibiting roughly 1,000 instances extra tolerance to ultraviolet radiation than different moss elements.
The Worldwide Area Station is usually used to review crops and progress as pictured right here (Credit score : NASA)
That protecting benefit comes from the spore’s encasing construction, which acts as each bodily barrier and chemical protect, absorbing dangerous radiation earlier than it reaches the susceptible genetic materials inside. This adaptation seemingly enabled bryophytes, the plant group together with mosses, to colonise land 500 million years in the past and climate subsequent extinction occasions.
Utilizing information from the mission, researchers constructed a mathematical mannequin predicting these spores may survive roughly 5,600 days in area, roughly 15 years, although they emphasise this stays a tough estimate requiring extra information.
Supply : This moss survived 9 months directly exposed to the elements of space
