Accidental Space Travelers: Top Instances of Earth Life Beyond Earth

Earth microbes have unintentionally traveled to and seemingly survived in extraterrestrial environments, challenging our understanding of life's resilience.

The top 3

1. The Apollo Missions' Unintended Passengers: During the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, a common bacterium, Streptococcus mitis, was reportedly found alive on the Surveyor 3 camera after 2.5 years on the Moon, though later analyses suggested possible Earth contamination during retrieval.
2. Tardigrades' Journey to the Moon: In 2019, thousands of dehydrated tardigrades were aboard the Israeli Beresheet lunar lander, which crashed on the Moon, potentially scattering these resilient micro-animals across the lunar surface.
3. Longest Survival of Microbes on ISS External Surfaces: Experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) have shown that certain bacteria, like Deinococcus radiodurans and Bacillus subtilis spores, can survive for months to years when exposed to the harsh vacuum, radiation, and temperature fluctuations of outer space.

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