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Amaze Lab
  • 7/22/2024
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.
Transcript
00:00Mosses are amazing plants, able to transform a lifeless mineral like a rock into a garden
00:08of sorts, habitable for myriad creatures.
00:11Mosses include a whole host of similar organisms called bryophytes, and now researchers say
00:16those 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
00:25was little more than a rocky wasteland.
00:27These organisms stretched out of the primordial ooze, crawling across land, and literally
00:31laying 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 coninervis.
00:41It's notable because it thrives in desert mountains all over the world, especially northwest
00:45China.
00:46In that area, temperatures fluctuate from a frigid minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit all the
00:50way up to a scorching 149 degrees Fahrenheit, which is why researchers have recently put
00:56its extraterrestrial survival skills to work, freezing the plant in minus 112 degree Fahrenheit
01:01conditions for 2-5 years, and minus 320 degree Fahrenheit conditions for 15-30 days, mimicking
01:08Mars.
01:09They also slammed the plant with extreme pressure, and hit it with Mars' surface levels of radiation,
01:14with the researchers finding it could withstand it all, writing in their recently released
01:18paper,
01:19Looking to the future, we expect that this promising moss could be brought to Mars or
01:23the moon to further test the possibility of plant colonization and growth in outer space.

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