None of these items are completely sterile.” There are astronauts, and cargo is exchanged all the time. They’re most likely to have been transferred to the ISS from Earth – rather than coming from outer space – and have either survived since the station’s inception, or were introduced when new astronauts or payloads arrived.Ĭhristine Moissl-Eichinger, a microbiologist at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, said: “All microbes in the ISS stem from Earth. All of them are rod-shaped bacteria belonging to the Methylobacteriaceae family – usually found in soil and fresh water, where they help to promote plant growth and defend against pathogens. The fourth species, which was already known of, was found on an old air-purifying filter, which had been returned to Earth. One was discovered on a dining table another on an overhead panel in a research area used to study low gravity the third in the Cupola observatory. The new bacteria were similarly identified from swabs of various locations inside the ISS. They were deliberately placed there to test the “panspermia” theory, that life exists throughout the universe and may be transported between planets by space dust, asteroids, comets, or even contaminated spacecraft.Īnother recent study identified a diverse population of bacteria and fungi associated with the human body inside the ISS, where they are somewhat more protected – though still subject to low gravity, recirculated air and high levels of carbon dioxide. Previous studies had suggested that certain resilient strains of bacteria could survive the harsh conditions of space, including dried pellets of Deinococcus bacteria – listed in the Guinness World Records as the world’s toughest – which survived on the space station’s surface for three years.
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