Wait, aren't "clean" rooms supposed to be, well, "clean" of germs and other pesky microscopic particles?
Maybe not: A new study reports 26 new bacterial species were found growing inside cleanrooms associated with NASA space missions. Specifically, scientists looked in the cleanrooms used to prepare the Phoenix Mars lander for its launch in August 2007.
In the study, scientists analyzed microorganisms growing in the NASA cleanrooms and discovered many of the new species had genes that made them resilient to decontamination and radiation.
"We are unraveling the mysteries of microbes that withstand the extreme conditions of space – organisms with the potential to revolutionize the life sciences, bioengineering, and interplanetary exploration," Kasthuri Venkateswaran, retired senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a lead author of the study, said in a statement.
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