{"id":13017,"date":"2024-07-03T10:51:30","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T10:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=13017"},"modified":"2024-07-03T10:51:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T10:51:30","slug":"scientists-discover-plant-that-could-grow-on-mars-and-pave-the-way-for-human-life-on-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=13017","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover plant that could grow on Mars and pave the way for human life on the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The plant has been found to be able to adapt to ‘extreme stress conditions’<\/h2>\n

Scientists have found promising new evidence that could help make Mars eventually habitable for humans.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alongside the\u00a0Moon<\/a>,\u00a0Mars<\/a>\u00a0has had a lot of interest from\u00a0scientists<\/a>\u00a0here on Earth.<\/p>\n

While it’s very unlikely that we’ll ever live on the Moon, there are hopes that Mars will eventually be habitable for humans.<\/p>\n

It won’t be a long-term plan for humankind however as the Red Planet was recently deemed\u00a0unsafe for us to live for longer than four years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the potential knock back, scientists are still testing theories that could help us eventually make a home on Mars and they’ve recently made a huge breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have found Syntrichia caninervis – a common kind of moss that’s able to grow in extreme desert environments – is able able to withstand Mars-like conditions, including drought, high levels of radiation and extreme cold.<\/p>\n

While moss isn’t something that’s edible, it could prove hugely beneficial in making Mars’ atmosphere more habitable.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/div>\n

A new study has suggested that moss might be able to survive on Mars. (Getty Stock)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Prof Stuart McDaniel, an expert on moss at the University of Florida but was not involved in the study,\u00a0explained<\/a>\u00a0to The Guardian: “Cultivating terrestrial plants is an important part of any long-term space mission because plants efficiently turn carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbohydrates \u2013 essentially the air and food that humans need to survive.<\/p>\n

“Desert moss is not edible, but it could provide other important services in space.”<\/p>\n

As well as surviving Mars-like conditions, the moss was said to have rapidly recovered from almost complete dehydration.<\/p>\n

Other moss samples were placed in a \u201380\u00b0C (\u2013112\u00b0F) freezer for three or five years and a \u2013196\u00b0C (-321\u00b0F) liquid nitrogen storage tank for 15 or 30 days before being moved over to sterilized sand for recovery, IFL Science\u00a0reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Remarkably the plants recovered quite well from being exposed to such harsh conditions and had a reintegration rate of around 95 percent that of control plants.<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/div>\n

The moss could help make the Red Planet eventually habitable for humans. (Getty Stock)<\/cite><\/div>\n

The moss was also exposed to the kind of extreme radiation it would face on the red planet as well, which the samples survived.<\/p>\n

There are now hopes that the moss will be one day be tested on Mars or the Moon to look into possibility of plant colonisation and growth in outer space.<\/p>\n

While the study doesn’t confirm that the moss could definitely survive on the Red Planet, it’s certainly a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

“This extremotolerant moss could be a promising pioneer plant for Mars colonisation,” Prof Edward Guinan of Villanova University shared.<\/p>\n

Noting that more research is needed, he went on: “We have a long way to go, but this lowly desert moss offers hope for making small portions of Mars habitable for humankind in the future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plant has been found to be able to adapt to ‘extreme stress conditions’ Scientists…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":163,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}