An Unknown Microbe Snuck Onto China's Space Station. Could It Infect the Universe?
Two new studies show how difficult it is to keep microbes from traveling into Earth orbit and beyond.
Chinese scientists report that they've found a novel bacteria on the Tiangong space station, but can't confirm if it evolved on the station itself or on Earth before hitching a ride skyward.
Similarly, a separate study shows that NASA's clean room—used for the Phoenix Mars lander mission—also contained 26 novel bacteria species.
Bacteria seem to thrive anywhere—even in places where they are least wanted. In the past week, we've have gotten a pretty stark reminder that these microbes can survive and thrive in the most unlikely of places.
The first case concerns China's Tiangong space station. Around 20 percent the size of the International Space Station (ISS), Tiangong similarly conducts experiments in fields ranging from physics to biotechnology and beyond—at last count, the station has enabled some 180 scientific investigations. One of those investigations, known as the Habitation Area Microbiome Programme, called for Chinese astronauts (known as hángtiān yuán or 'space travelers') to collect swabs of the interior cabin of the three-capsule Tiangong in two surveys. Swabs obtained in May of 2023 are now the subject of a new study that highlights the novel microbiome environment of the space station, which is even different from similar spacecraft like the ISS. This space-based microbiome now includes a novel bacteria, identified in a study published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Known as Niallia tiangongensis—a nod to the orbital environment in which it was discovered—the bacteria isn't wholly alien. Instead, it appears to be a close relative of Niallia circulans, which is typically found in soils on Earth and is known to be the cause of some wound infections (the bacteria was classified under the genus Bacillus until 2020).
'Understanding the characteristics of microbes during long-term space missions is essential for safeguarding the health of astronauts and maintaining the functionality of spacecraft,' the authors wrote. 'Based on phenotypic, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, as well as genome annotation, [the novel bacteria] was considered a novel species within the genus Niallia.'
But do we really need to understand the threat of bacteria in space? After all, NASA has clean rooms for this very reason, right? Yeah, about that…
Another study—published earlier this month as part of a collaboration between scientists from NASA, Saudi Arabia, and India—found that NASA's clean rooms, which were used during the Phoenix Mars lander mission (originally launched in 2007), were chock-full of hearty microbes. 26 of those microbes were completely unknown to science.
'Our study aimed to understand the risk of extremophiles being transferred in space missions and to identify which microorganisms might survive the harsh conditions of space,' Alexandre Rosado, the lead author of a study published in the journal Microbiome, said in a press statement. 'This effort is pivotal for monitoring the risk of microbial contamination and safeguarding against unintentional colonization of exploring planets.'
With more than two dozen rovers and landers sent to Mars, microbes have almost certainly hitched a ride to the Red Planet, which can complicate matters when a mission's goal is to search for native microbial life. The very act of sending Earth-based organisms to other planets would likely violate some kind of Star Trek-ian microbial Prime Directive.
In Tiangong's case, scientists can't be sure if this novel bacteria evolved while on the space station, or if it came to be on Earth and simply hitched a ride via rocket. Humans may be the most adept space explorers among eukaryotes, but when it comes to pure numbers, no one holds a candle to prokaryotic bacteria.
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