Moss Spores Survive 9 Months Outside ISS (phys.org) 34
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Inspired by moss's resilience, researchers sent moss sporophytes -- reproductive structures that encase spores -- to the most extreme environment yet: space. Their results, published in the journal iScience on November 20, show that more than 80% of the spores survived nine months outside of the International Space Station (ISS) and made it back to Earth still capable of reproducing, demonstrating for the first time that an early land plant can survive long-term exposure to the elements of space.
[Lead author Tomomichi Fujita of Hokkaido University and his team] subjected Physcomitrium patens, a well-studied moss commonly known as spreading earthmoss, to a simulated a space environment, including high levels of UV radiation, extreme high and low temperatures, and vacuum conditions. They tested three different structures from the moss -- protenemata, or juvenile moss; brood cells, or specialized stem cells that emerge under stress conditions; and sporophytes, or encapsulated spores -- to find out which had the best chance of surviving in space.
The researchers found that UV radiation was the toughest element to survive, and the sporophytes were by far the most resilient of the three moss parts. None of the juvenile moss survived high UV levels or extreme temperatures. The brood cells had a higher rate of survival, but the encased spores exhibited ~1,000x more tolerance to UV radiation. The spores were also able to survive and germinate after being exposed to 196C for over a week, as well as after living in 55C heat for a month.
[Lead author Tomomichi Fujita of Hokkaido University and his team] subjected Physcomitrium patens, a well-studied moss commonly known as spreading earthmoss, to a simulated a space environment, including high levels of UV radiation, extreme high and low temperatures, and vacuum conditions. They tested three different structures from the moss -- protenemata, or juvenile moss; brood cells, or specialized stem cells that emerge under stress conditions; and sporophytes, or encapsulated spores -- to find out which had the best chance of surviving in space.
The researchers found that UV radiation was the toughest element to survive, and the sporophytes were by far the most resilient of the three moss parts. None of the juvenile moss survived high UV levels or extreme temperatures. The brood cells had a higher rate of survival, but the encased spores exhibited ~1,000x more tolerance to UV radiation. The spores were also able to survive and germinate after being exposed to 196C for over a week, as well as after living in 55C heat for a month.
100 years from now (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Alien civilizations... How about our own? Have they read the Andromeda Strain?
Re: (Score:3)
We will meet alien civilizations, befriend them, and wipe them out with toxic sporophytes
Nah, it'll probably be a plague spread by dirty telephones. [ref [fandom.com]]
Here's an idea (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
If these traits are evolutionary, why are spores so resilient?
Because conditions on earth also changed quite a lot over time, and moss emerged around the time when the UV-blocking Ozone layer was just coming into existence.
I wonder (Score:2)
Will the moss spores get gigantic and dangerous next, like the tardigrade did in Discovery?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: I wonder (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Gain of Function Research anyone ? (Score:1)
So when are we gonna start some gain of function research on these beautiful resilient sporophytes ?
ICE storing deadly spores? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Have you ever heard of any predatory moss preying on people?
You have clearly never been to a proper Scottish bog. You step on what seems like an innocent clump of moss and disappear almost instantly without trace and your digested, but likely quite well preserved by the low oxygen conditions, body is only recovered thousands of years later. There are some like that in Wales and the North of England too. https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org]
196 degree C is wrong (Score:3)
Minus sign is missing. They were exposed to -196 degree C aka 77 K, temperature of liquid nitrogen.
Re: 196 degree C is wrong (Score:2)
Classic example that Americans can't do Celcius.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It can, actually. It just implements an ASCII filter because you must sanitize your input, especially Unicode. Anyone who doesn't sanitize their Unicode is asking for trouble as people abuse Unicode to screw up your webpage. It's trivial to make say, a page unreadable if you do not implement any filters.
If you count by characters, you can ingest megabytes of Unicode because you can have unlimited decorations on a character. You have to limit your inputs and you have to limit what you can inpu
Re: (Score:3)
-196C (ascii)
196C (U+2212 stripped)
So we are the spore people and all life on Earth (Score:3)
We all related to LUCA (Score:2)
Sign and units missing! (Score:2)
> exposed to 196C
No. That is nearly twice the boiling point of water and would destroy any protein.
You ommitted both the units and the sign.
The article says:
> exposed to 196C
*Minus* 196 C. DEGREES centigrade. Kelvin is the one that isn't measured in degrees, and 196 K isn't too bad. I have survived that frequently myself. It's a very cold day up a mountain.
Re: (Score:3)
-77C. A very could day on Mount Olympus on Mars, I guess?
Dumb title (Score:2)
This is about moss spores surviving in simulated outer space conditions. What does that have to do with ISS? Unless space outside the International Space Station has some unique properties compared to space anywhere else in the galaxy, and the scientists simulated those exact unique conditions in their experiment. I guess "Moss spores survive 9 months in the lab" is a less clickbaity title.
Re:Dumb title (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, I'm a heretic, but I RTFA in Phys.org and it says:
In March 2022, the researchers sent hundreds of sporophytes to the ISS aboard the Cygnus NG-17 spacecraft. Once they arrived, the astronauts attached the sporophyte samples to the outside of the ISS, where they were exposed to space for a total of 283 days. The moss then hitched a ride back to Earth on SpaceX CRS-16 in January 2023 and was returned to the lab for testing.
----
The simulation was to see if this was a reasonable experiment to conduct, you need some sort of baseline level of reasonableness before NASA lets you hang something off the ISS.
Can They Survive Re-entry? (Score:3)
If we sprinkle spores in space and the get pulled back to Earth, can they survive re-entry and germinate? What about on Mars?
Re:Can They Survive Re-entry? (Score:5, Informative)
Surviving reentry would be easy for spores, as soon as there's enough air molecules to create any sort of resistance and slow them down they'll just start to drift. They may take a few months to arrive at the surface, and then there's a 70% chance they'll land in the ocean, but if they wander into a rain cloud it could be faster since spores are one of the things that can cause raindrops to coalesce. Once they're on land it's just a matter of being lucky enough to land somewhere habitable for their species. There are a lot of species of moss that are found from the Arctic to the Antarctic, probably because spores got caught in an updraft that took them into the upper atmosphere for a few months.
Longevity (Score:2)
Evidence toward Panspermia (Score:2)
Now do a pass through the Van Allen belts (Score:1)
and see what happens.
Reminder: the ISS flies at about 400km altitude. This is to stay out of the space debris and to stay below the radiation belts for human habitation.
I am not impressed (Score:2)
My dear Dr. Grant, (Score:2)
Well, we revived the sporophyte after nine months.
Sporophyte?
Mm-hm.
You said you've got a sporophyte?
Uh-huh.
Say again?
We have a sporophyte!
well given... (Score:2)
Not that surprising? (Score:2)
My roof gets ~150-250F for 8 hours a day direct UV exposure and we regularly go 9 months without rain here. There's no atmosphere to filter the UV and the ISS can reach 300F worst case so it's worse but not an order of magnitude worse. ISS has a true vacuum but i'm not sure if that helps or hurts above water's boiling point. Every winter before the rainy season comes I have to go on the roof and brush off the thick carpet of moss that has started forming in the shadiest parts. So clearly nature is working a