On the surface of the Russian segment of the International space station (ISS) was found live bacteria arrived from space, reports TASS the words of Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. Currently they are studied on Earth and is likely to pose no risk. The only question is, where are they from?
As Shkaplerov said in an interview during output to space from the ISS by Russian cosmonauts program, take a cotton swab to swab outer surface of the station. In particular, they are taken to the place of accumulation of the waste fuel discharged during operation of the engine, or in places where the surface of the station more shaded. Then the samples are delivered to Earth.
“And now it turned out that somewhere on these swabs revealed bacteria that were not there when I launch a module of the ISS. That is, they where something came from space and settled on the outside of the hull. While they studied, and it seems that no danger,” — said the astronaut.
They also found that terrestrial bacteria had survived on the outer surface of the station, although three years were in the extreme conditions of space vacuum and temperature extremes from -150 to +150 degrees Celsius. These bacteria were brought from Earth by accident on tablets with different materials that are placed on Board the station for a long time to study the behavior of these materials in the open space.
If the bacteria really got to the ISS from outer space, this would be a strong argument in favor of panspermia — one of the theories of the origin of life, and will be the first proof of the existence of life beyond Earth.
The ISS found extraterrestrial life
Ilya Hel