Mosses are amazing plants, able to transform a lifeless mineral like a rock, into a garden of sorts habitable for myriad creatures. Now experts have identified one which could aid humans in their colonization of other planets.
00:00Mosses are amazing plants, able to transform a lifeless mineral like a rock into a garden of sorts, habitable for myriad creatures.
00:11Mosses include a whole host of similar organisms called bryophytes, and now researchers say those very plants might be able to jumpstart life on Mars.
00:20These organisms were what once did the very same on Earth, when its non-oceanic surface was little more than a rocky wasteland.
00:27These organisms stretched out of the primordial ooze, crawling across land, and literally laying out a carpet of hospitable Earth for other species to thrive upon.
00:36Experts were looking in particular at this type of moss, known as centricia coninivis.
00:41It's notable because it thrives in desert mountains all over the world, especially in northwest China.
00:46In that area, temperatures fluctuate from a frigid minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to a scorching 149 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:54Which is why researchers have recently put its extraterrestrial survival skills to work.
00:58Freezing the plant in minus 112 degree Fahrenheit conditions for 2 to 5 years, and minus 320 degree Fahrenheit conditions for 15 to 30 days, mimicking Mars.
01:09They also slammed the plant with extreme pressure, and hit it with Mars surface levels of radiation, with the researchers finding it could withstand it all.
01:16Writing in their recently released paper, looking to the future, we expect that this promising moss could be brought to Mars or the moon to further test the possibility of plant colonization and growth in outer space.
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