Overview
- A peer-reviewed PNAS Nexus study reports that the extremophile Deinococcus radiodurans remained viable after laboratory shocks replicating asteroid-impact ejection pressures of roughly 1–3 gigapascals.
- Survival was near-universal at about 1.4 GPa and about 60% at 2.4 GPa, with cells showing minimal damage at lower pressures and membrane and internal damage emerging at higher pressures.
- Researchers generated the transient pressures by sandwiching microbes between metal plates and striking them with a gas-gun projectile up to ~300 mph, then assessed gene expression that indicated a prioritized repair response.
- The findings strengthen the plausibility of lithopanspermia and led the authors to suggest reassessing contamination safeguards for nearby bodies such as Mars’s moon Phobos.
- The work is a simulation on a single species and does not prove past interplanetary transfer, and the team plans follow-up tests on other organisms and repeated-impact scenarios.