{"id":1162643,"date":"2026-08-22T07:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1162643\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T07:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:02:13","slug":"nasa-study-warns-its-easier-than-expected-for-astronauts-to-contaminate-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1162643\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Study Warns It\u2019s Easier Than Expected for Astronauts to Contaminate the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

People might have told you that the Moon is something of a harsh mistress<\/a>. Putting aside what you already know about it\u2014the Moon\u2019s extreme surface temperatures, its lack of a breathable atmosphere, and its constant exposure to solar and cosmic radiation\u2014the dusty lunar surface is also coated in tiny particles of regolith<\/a> that are (to make matters worse) as sharp as glass.<\/p>\n

Astronomers and planetary scientists had long assumed<\/a> the Moon was simply too inhospitable to support any kind of life, but NASA researchers have now added a critical caveat: It turns out that certain well-shaded pockets along the Moon\u2019s craggy surface, particularly near the lunar poles, are just protected enough from radiation to preserve certain microbes in a state of suspended animation, known as cryptobiosis.<\/p>\n

Researchers at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center cross-checked these spots with data on three categories of bacteria and two types of fungi, finding that a few microbes not even classed as tough \u201cextremophiles\u201d have the capacity to eke out an existence on the Moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some scientists, myself included, that reality can be unsettling,\u201d Prabal Saxena, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard and the new study\u2019s lead author, said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cBut it also creates an opportunity to turn an imperfect situation into a useful experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cold traps <\/p>\n

Saxena and his colleagues selected their microbial study candidates based on each one\u2019s known radiation-resistant and heat-resistant properties. The extremophile bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans<\/a>, for example\u2014which can survive in space and even hop<\/a> asteroids\u2014has been a notorious issue for NASA space missions hoping to avoid<\/a> contaminating celestial bodies with Earth life (and thus avoid undermining the search for alien life).<\/p>\n

But even less hardy species, like the fungus Aspergillus niger, have surprised researchers with their resilience in space. Astronauts have learned that A. niger colonies, which typically thrive in warm, damp terrestrial locations like bathrooms and heating vents, have not only survived onboard the International Space Station, but can manage to stay alive on its exterior surfaces as well.<\/p>\n

NASA Geomicrobiologist Aaron Regberg, a co-author on the new paper, said this performance by a non-extremophile surprised him at the time. \u201cI would have expected these microbes to have dried out,\u201d Regberg said.<\/p>\n

Alongside D. radiodurans and A. niger, the researchers assembled data on Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, as well as several species from the fungal genus Fusarium for their study, published<\/a> Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Each was chosen for their reported robustness in spaceflight conditions\u2014and then pitted against the lunar environment in simulations built off detailed maps of elevation and temperature data collected by NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.<\/p>\n

The model also calculated the variation in radiation exposure across different portions of the lunar surface, which is particularly spared from ultraviolet bombardment at the poles, where compounds like water that might otherwise evaporate have been stored<\/a> in so-called \u201ccold traps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MoonA map of ultraviolet exposures on the moon\u2019s poles, above a color-coded map of where certain Earth microbes might best survive on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA Goddard Cold Storage <\/p>\n

According to Saxena, who researches exoplanet geochemistry among his other duties at NASA Goddard, the possibility of astronauts accidentally contaminating these sites includes a potentially intriguing corollary. Cosmic collisions earlier in our solar system\u2019s history might have already launched microbe-laden chunks of planet Earth onto the Moon, where microscopic life may have already been stored there in a cryptobiotic state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moon might be like Earth\u2019s freezer, preserving really interesting bits of evidence of Earth\u2019s past if they landed at the Moon\u2019s poles,\u201d Saxena told<\/a> Space.com on Thursday.<\/p>\n

After some careful work establishing a safe and sterile research station, he hopes that further experiments at the lunar poles might one day be able to assess how well a variety of other microbial species might adapt to life on the Moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have this great opportunity to really think about the limits of life and how resilient it is even in incredibly extreme environments,\u201d Saxena said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People might have told you that the Moon is something of a harsh mistress. Putting aside what you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1045007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[28664,51292,49924,70,7646,16,15],"class_list":["post-1162643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astrobiology","tag-extremophiles","tag-microbes","tag-science","tag-the-moon","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117137884739213045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1162643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1162643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1162643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1162643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}