PANSPERMIA, the idea that life on Earth was seeded by microbes from space, has had a boost from an unlikely source: the Columbia space shuttle, which broke apart on re-entry in February 2003.
Robert McLean at Texas State University in San Marcos had sent three strains of bacteria on the doomed Columbia sealed in a box to see how weightlessness would affect their growth. When the disaster happened, he assumed that the box had been destroyed. A few days later, however, a colleague spotted the charred container in a newspaper photograph of shuttle debris.
McLean prised open the box to find the inner layers intact. The innards of the box had survived temperatures of more than 175 °C. His three bacterial strains had died, but he was surprised to find another bacterium, Microbispora, thriving inside (Icarus, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2005.12.002).
McLean thinks that the Microbispora, which are found in soil, contaminated the box before it was sealed and sent up on the shuttle. The bacteria's hardiness lends support to the notion that living organisms originated in space, and hitched a ride to Earth on an asteroid (see "Panspermia"). "Microbispora has shown that's possible," he says.
Robert McLean at Texas State University in San Marcos had sent three strains of bacteria on the doomed Columbia sealed in a box to see how weightlessness would affect their growth. When the disaster happened, he assumed that the box had been destroyed. A few days later, however, a colleague spotted the charred container in a newspaper photograph of shuttle debris.
McLean prised open the box to find the inner layers intact. The innards of the box had survived temperatures of more than 175 °C. His three bacterial strains had died, but he was surprised to find another bacterium, Microbispora, thriving inside (Icarus, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2005.12.002).
McLean thinks that the Microbispora, which are found in soil, contaminated the box before it was sealed and sent up on the shuttle. The bacteria's hardiness lends support to the notion that living organisms originated in space, and hitched a ride to Earth on an asteroid (see "Panspermia"). "Microbispora has shown that's possible," he says.
