Space exploration has an obsession with cleanliness. It is not for less: if we want to look for life on other planets of our solar system we have to make sure that our ships do not lead with them terrestrial life that can lead us to confusion. This is the main reason why space agencies pay enormous attention to microorganisms that may appear in their ships, even in those who do not travel to other planets. Sometimes life gives us surprises.
Bacteria on board. Sample analysis taken in the Chinese Space Station Tiangong It has allowed to detect traces of the presence of an unknown bacterium in this aseptic space environment. The newly discovered bacteria would have mechanisms that would have allowed her to stay alive in the extreme conditions of life aboard an orbital station.
Niallia tiagongensis. The new species has been baptized as Niallia tiagongensisin reference to the name of the space station placed in orbit by China. Name in turn can translate as “Celestial Palace” N. tiagongensis Share taxonomic gender with the species Niallia Circumsa pathogenic bacterium capable of causing sepsis in immunocompromised patients.
The New bacterium It has a cane shape, but it would be able to form spores, oval structures that protect the genetic information of the species in extreme conditions such as high temperatures, radiation or lack of water. N. tiagongensis It could have arrived in this way to the station that has given it.
A space bacterium? The evolutionary origin of this bacterium is on earth, but We do not know for now If this new species can be found on the surface or if on the contrary it is the result of the evolution of another bacterium. An evolution that could have occurred aboard the station, allowing the survival of the bacterial colonies.
It is also possible that the species has an almost fully terrestrial origin but that its “space colonies” have evolved to better adapt to the new extraterrestrial environment.
Two years of study. The samples that have given rise to the finding were collected inside the station In May 2023 by astronauts of the Shenzhou-15 mission. The study of the remains found has allowed to know details on the survival strategy of this microorganism.
Genes have been found that encode some responses of these bacteria to some extreme conditions, such as their response to oxidative stress or their ability to repair the damage caused by radiation. For example, we know that this bacterium is capable of generating protective particles obtaining nitrogen and carbon from the decomposition of gelatins.
The details of the finding were published In an article In the magazine International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
From ISS A Tiangong. It is not the first time that we find bacteria aboard a space station. We have detected bacteria years In the International Space Station, so much so that their astronauts began recently began the Life search abroad of the ship.
What we can intuit from the fact that we would not have detected the new bacteria in other ships such as the ISS is that there is diversity in the populations of microorganisms that populate the different vehicles and stations that we send to space.
A lost race? The news of the new finding has been produced almost at the same time that The announcement by NASA of the detection of numerous species of microorganisms inside one of its “clean rooms”, allegedly aseptic environments designed precisely to maintain devices and vehicles safe from pollution.
Bad news, not only before we send (or we have already sent) microorganisms aboard the probes that explore planets and satellites where we suspect can exist or have existed extraterrestrial life. The fact that we know that this life is able to survive in the low terrestrial orbits It does not necessarily imply That these microbes can resist an interplanetary trip, but it is a bad indication.
In Xataka | The International Space Station is a farm of new species of candidate bacteria
Image | Shujianyang / Bob Blaylock
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