Moss Survives Nine Months in Space

This tiny plant just survived something no human ever has: nine months outside the International

Space Station. Space is brutal. There's no air, extreme cold, wild temperature

swings, and intense UV radiation. Basically, everything that kills life instantly.

But Japanese researchers just discovered a type of moss that survived all of it.

They sent a species called physcomitrium patens to the ISS and didn't keep it inside.

They strapped it outside the station, directly into the vacuum of space for nine months.

They tested three life stages. The juvenile moss didn't make it, but brood cells

survived a month of freezing temperatures, and the real champions were the sporophytes. 80% of them survived