Tag Archives: Moss

Moss has been shown to survive one of the harshest environments imaginable: the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS). Researchers sent three different types of moss structures to the orbital outpost: protonemata, or juvenile moss; brood cells; and sporophytes, or encapsulated spores. The juvenile moss didn’t survive the experience. Some of the brood cells made it, but 80 percent …

Imagine that you are moss. (Thank you for subscribing to Defector, moss!) You are one of the most ancient types of land plants—older than flowers, older than grass, older than trees, older even than ferns, which are the usual go-to for old plants. Being so old, you’re relatively simple, as far as plants go. You don’t have the standard vascular …

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images The humble clumps of moss that grow on garden walls and between the cracks of sidewalks are hardy enough to survive the rigors of space, a new experiment found, and that means the velvety green stuff could be a promising component of future ecosystems beyond earth. A team of Japanese scientists …

This little plant is a lot tougher than it looks. Researchers exposed moss spores to the harsh environment of space for nine months recently, and the results were surprising, a new study reports. “Most living organisms, including humans, cannot survive even briefly in the vacuum of space,” study lead author Tomomichi Fujita, of Hokkaido University in Japan, said in a …

Mosses, like the tardigrades of the plant world, are known to withstand extreme conditions, including harsh radiation and dehydration. Now, researchers have exposed the spore-containing capsules of one prized species to the harsh extremes of space, and again, as with space-faring tardigrades, many survived unscathed. “We expected almost zero survival, but the result was the opposite: most of the spores …

Refresh 2025-11-21T12:13:00.157Z It’s official: Elon Musk is the world’s greatest human, his chatbot Grok says. Elon Musk celebrating the launch of the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on May 30, 2020. (Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Who can outthink da Vinci and Newton? Outfight Mike Tyson? Outball LeBron? Who can create the universe with …

Moss spores survived in outer space for a majority of 2022, and could even reproduce as usual when they were eventually returned to Earth, according to a new study from researchers who say their findings “reveal the potential of terrestrial plants to endure extreme environments” — including the extraterrestrial kind. “Climate change highlights the importance of understanding life’s survival limits …

Moss spores have survived a prolonged trip to space, scientists reveal. The spores spent nine months on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to our planet, and over 80% of the spores were still able to reproduce when they arrived back on Earth. The discovery improves our understanding of how plant species survive in extreme conditions, …

Matt Damon grew potatoes for survival in The Martian, but researchers say mosses could one day help turn the dust and rocks of other planets into fertile soil. Physcomitrella patens, or spreading earthmoss, is already known as a pioneering species – albeit for being an early plant on the scene in areas of barren mud. Now researchers have found that …

Mosses are thought to have descended from ancestral plants that started moving out of water to colonize dry land roughly 450 million years ago. The organisms are known to be extremely hardy, able to grow everywhere from the Antarctic tundra to the peaks of the Himalayas to volcanic lava fields to all manner of aquatic habitats. Fujita said he was …