Is there life on Mars? Scientists have discovered a plant that can survive on the red planet. Photo

Scientists have already proven that humanity is capable of growing potatoes and rice in Martian soil. New tests have revealed another plant that can grow on the red planet - desert moss.

Scientists say that the unpretentious moss, which grows in the Mojave Desert and Antarctica, will be able to take root on Mars. Researchers are convinced that this modest plant could be the key to establishing life on a new planet, The Guardian reports.

Chinese scientists have revealed that they have discovered an extremely hardy species of moss. Syntrichia caninervis is a moss that grows in Antarctica and deserts, in particular, it can be found in the Mojave Desert.

According to scientists, this plant is able to withstand conditions similar to those on the Martian surface, including drought, extreme cold, and high levels of radiation. Scientists created a unique facility that had pressure, temperature, gases, and UV radiation exactly like those on Mars. The desert moss survived after seven days in such conditions.

Researchers from China emphasize that the desert moss not only survived in extremely difficult conditions during their experiments, but also quickly recovered from almost complete dehydration. In addition, Syntrichia caninervis is able to recover after being exposed to -80C for up to five years and -196C for up to 30 days. This type of moss grows back after exposure to gamma rays, and a dose of about 500 Gy even promoted new growth.

The scientists emphasized that the unique data they obtained during the study lays the foundation for the colonization of outer space. "Cultivating terrestrial plants is an important part of any long-term space mission because plants efficiently convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbohydrates - essentially the air and food humans need to survive. Desert moss is not edible, but it can provide other important functions in space," said Professor Stuart McDaniel, one of the researchers on this project and a moss expert at the University of Florida.

Dr. Agata Żupanska of the SETI Institute added that while "moss is not tasty and would not make a great addition to a salad," it could help enrich and transform the rocky material found on the surface of Mars to allow other plants to grow.

Chinese scientists have assured that this promising moss could be taken to Mars or the Moon in the future to further test the possibility of plant colonization and growth in space.

However, Dr. Wiger Wamelink of the University of Wageningen expressed doubts about the study. He said that temperatures on the Red Planet rarely rise above freezing, making it impossible for plants to grow outdoors, while scientists from China did not use soil similar to that of the Martian.

"The mosses were cultivated in Mars conditions for a few days at most, and then grown again in terrestrial conditions on sand. This, of course, does not indicate that they can grow in the conditions of the red planet," Wamelink emphasized.

However, Professor Edward Guinan of Villanova University in the United States called the study amazing, but stressed that there is still a long way to go before we can colonize Mars. "We still have a long way to go in terms of research and improvement. But this modest desert moss gives us hope to make small parts of the red planet habitable for humanity in the future," the American scientist summarized.

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