Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Lichen in Space
Lichen placed on the outside of a European space craft in May seem to have survived in the vacuum. If these photosynthetic characters could be seeded on other planets like, say, Venus or Mars, they could (given a few millennia, probably) help terraform either one. Also, if lichen can survive in space, it does bode well for the panspermia/exogenesis hypotheses.
I find this fabulously exciting, but as there is no actual citation in the article, I have no idea how valid the results in fact are. Still, the idea is all sexy and stuff.
(Hat tip to former füdite WRC for this one.)
I find this fabulously exciting, but as there is no actual citation in the article, I have no idea how valid the results in fact are. Still, the idea is all sexy and stuff.
(Hat tip to former füdite WRC for this one.)
