While kept out of reach of solar radiation, it seems that these spores are very resistant, and even

Three experiments on microorganisms on Earth made by NASA on the International Space Station suggest that panspermia hypothesis (which argues that life spread across the cosmos aboard meteorites) usc football might not be so far fetched. In the study conducted, two species of spores were placed on board the International Space Station a few years ago. The results showed a high survival rate after 18 months in space.
While kept out of reach of solar radiation, it seems that these spores are very resistant, and even could easily be carried in a ship to Mars - which pretty worries many researchers devoted to the study of the habitability of Mars (either past or present). The experiment, together usc football with their results, was published in 2012, and in a press release from NASA, the importance of planetary protection was highlighted.
This experiment was called PROTECT (an acronym usc football for the resistance of the spacecraft, fully shielded and insulated from outer space planetary protection purposes). Bacillus subtilis 168 and Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032: For this experiment, two types of spores were used.
In previous analyzes, performed in the laboratory of JPL, whether it was discovered that the bacteria Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 is quite resistant usc football to the atmosphere of Mars, he died in 30 minutes in an environment simulating the red planet, instead of seconds, which is what has taken other bacteria die under the same conditions. In these previous studies, also proved to be more resistant to UV and hydrogen peroxide that other "wild" usc football strains. B. subtilis spore has been studied in other experiments, in space environments.
Samples of both spores were mounted on the EXPOSE-E installation on the International Space Station, usc football which offers a maximum of two years of exposure to space. According to NASA: The main objective of this experiment for the European Space Agency to study "the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the Universe". He added: "Any microorganism, traveling through space, has to survive the cosmic radiation, vacuum, to sunlight the whole electromagnetic spectrum including UV-C radiation, freezing and microgravity."
During the experiment, it was found that if the spores were in a crowded UV radiation, most did not survive. But if this radiation was filtered and detained, spores showed a survival rate of 50% in space and in simulated Martian conditions. This concern to scientists, especially when you consider a situation usc football in which the spores can be hidden no longer an object or another spacecraft during space travel. Those on the outside will probably usc football not survive the trip, but those on the inside - protected from solar radiation - could reach the destination.
A key limitation of this study is that only two types of spores were studied. So in the future, should do more studies usc football on this subject. Space agencies are well aware of the problem of planetary protection, as evidenced by the departments of the Office of the NASA Planetary Protection and the official program of the ESA Planetary Protection.
The spacecraft designers constantly usc football make decisions to keep studying celestial objects safe from terrestrial contamination, as far as possible. A famous example was when Galileo was deliberately sent into Jupiter in 2003 to protect Europe, and other potentially life-bearing moons, from possible contamination.
Images Bacillus pumilus spores SAFR-032 (observed in an electron micrograph) in aluminum before and after exposure to space in an experiment on the International Space Station. Credit: P. Vaishampayan, et al / Astrobiology
Study (led by Silvano usc football Onofri Tuscia University) takes a different usc football direction with respect to the spores. In this research, usc football we are studying usc football the phenomenon of "lithopanspermia", or what is the same, how organisms move from one planet to another (eg, in a meteorite). Because the Earth has found meteorites from Mars, researchers have wondered whether life could have spread between these two planets. If that were to happen, the spores would have to survive for thousands or millions of years.
The other article of B. pumilus spores (led by Parag A. Vaishampayan NASA) said: "These spores mounted outside the International Space Station who survived, had a conc