Life in space? Sea plankton discovered attached to ISS outer hull

[DavidU (Dave)]

http://rt.com/news/181472-iss-marine-plankton-space/
Interesting stuff.

[Steffen]

Don't let it inside! Under no circumstances should they let it inside!!!

[PeterEde (Peter)]

Extant?

[LewisM]

We have known about tardigrades for example - that can withstand large doses of solar/cosmic radiation, can live in the vacuum of space at near absolute zero and go without metabolic processes for a decade - for a while on the other hand, but nonetheless intetrsting indeed

[PeterEde (Peter)]

Didn't they recently also discover micro organisms in the upper atmosphere and decide there is no way for them to get there so they must have come from space?
Maybe our world of evolution is about to be turned on it's head? Maybe we did come from space. If that's the case then life is definitely out there

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by PeterEde

Didn't they recently also discover micro organisms in the upper atmosphere and decide there is no way for them to get there so they must have come from space?
Maybe our world of evolution is about to be turned on it's head? Maybe we did come from space. If that's the case then life is definitely out there

If you are refering to the 'research' I think you are then it is pure bollocks. The 'scientist' behind it has a track record or publishing carp in his own 'peer reviewed journal'. I'd expect more scientific rigor from lower high school students.

[PeterEde (Peter)]

Hadn't heard that. Just remembered the story a few months ago

[pluto (Hugh)]

The article says they found traces of plankton, not living plankton. And they refer to the traces being "microparticles" which to me sounds like they aren't whole/intact animals/algae...?

It's interesting to wonder how they got from the ocean to the hull of the ISS but it's hardly as exciting as the experiments with Tardigrades.

I can't seem to find any news of this from anywhere other than RT, it would be interesting to know whether the samples were only from Russian segments launched from Baikonur or from any of the STS launched modules. It would also be interesting to test the hull of an ATV at arrival and again at departure to see if the traces of plankton are accumulating only once in orbit.

[el_draco (Rom)]

Originally Posted by LewisM

We have known about tardigrades for example - that can withstand large doses of solar/cosmic radiation, can live in the vacuum of space at near absolute zero and go without metabolic processes for a decade - for a while on the other hand, but nonetheless intetrsting indeed

Can we try this with politicians...