×
GreekEnglish

×
  • Politics
  • Diaspora
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Cooking
Sunday
27
Jul 2025
weather symbol
Athens 37°C
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • World
  • Diaspora
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Mediterranean Cooking
  • Weather
Contact follow Protothema:
Powered by Cloudevo
> World

Microbes unknown to science discovered on the International Space Station (ISS)

The menagerie of bacterial & fungal species living among us is ever growing & this is no exception in low-gravity environments such as the ISS

Newsroom March 19 04:58

Researchers from the United States and India working with NASA have now discovered four strains of bacteria living in different places in the ISS – three of which were, until now, completely unknown to science.

Three of the four strains were isolated back in 2015 and 2016 – one was found on an overhead panel of the ISS research stations, the second was found in the Cupola, the third was found on the surface of the dining table; the fourth was found in an old HEPA filter returned to Earth in 2011.

All four of the strains belong to a family of bacteria found in soil and freshwater; they are involved in nitrogen fixation, plant growth, and can help stop plant pathogens. Basically, good bacteria to have around if you’re growing things.

See Also:

Man bitten by cobra in Athens in critical condition

Turkish Defence Minister Akar accuses Greece of ‘expansionist policies’

>Related articles

What are the dirtiest objects in the house that we touch every day

From Crete to Lavrio and from there directly to detention centers: 247 migrants who entered illegally from Libya (videos-photos)

Protests against immigration in dozens of Polish cities

You might wonder what such soil bacteria were doing all the way up on the ISS, but the astronauts living on the space station have been growing small amounts of food for years, so it’s unsurprising that we’ve found plant-related microbes aboard.

One of the strains – the HEPA-filter find – was identified as a known species called Methylorubrum rhodesianum. The other three were sequenced and found to all belong to the same, previously unidentified species, and the strains were named IF7SW-B2T, IIF1SW-B5, and IIF4SW-B5.

Read more: Science Alert

Ask me anything

Explore related questions

#bacteria#discovery#International Space Station (ISS)#life#microbes#science#space#technology#world
> More World

Follow en.protothema.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news

See all the latest News from Greece and the World, the moment they happen, at en.protothema.gr

> Latest Stories

Complaint for bribery and humiliation of a patient at a regional hospital – Georgiades post

July 27, 2025

Record-breaking temperature in Turkey – 50.5 degrees Celsius recorded in Silopi

July 27, 2025

What the provocative young man posted before picking up female students hitchhiking

July 27, 2025

Mystery with the dead little girl at a beach in Paleo Faliro – The autopsy will shed light on the case

July 27, 2025

Mitsotakis: The state mechanism fought a titanic battle – We stand by those who saw their property destroyed

July 27, 2025

Sakis Kehagioglou: The whole truth about the high-profile case of the model caught with 2.6 kilos of cocaine in Hong Kong

July 27, 2025

The fire in Kythera is out of control – evacuations, damage to villages and dramatic calls for air support

July 27, 2025

Dead sea turtle in Nea Krini, Thessaloniki

July 27, 2025
All News

> World

Record-breaking temperature in Turkey – 50.5 degrees Celsius recorded in Silopi

All-time record in the neighbouring country

July 27, 2025

Widespread fires across the Mediterranean — NASA satellite map reveals extent

July 27, 2025

He posed as an ambassador of imaginary states and deceived people for a decade – An incredible case in India

July 26, 2025

‘EU trade deal will be the biggest of all if reached,’ said Trump in Scotland

July 26, 2025

Tragedy in Peru – 15 dead after a bus falls into a ravine

July 26, 2025
Homepage
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY COOKIES POLICY TERM OF USE
Powered by Cloudevo
Copyright © 2025 Πρώτο Θέμα