Ryugu Asteroid Sample Rapidly Colonized By Terrestrial Life

Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from Phys.org: Researchers from Imperial College London have discovered that a space-returned sample from asteroid Ryugu was rapidly colonized by terrestrial microorganisms, even under stringent contamination control measures. In the study, [...] researchers analyzed sample A0180, a tiny (1 x 0.8 mm) particle collected by the JAXA Hayabusa 2 mission from asteroid Ryugu.

Transported to Earth in a hermetically sealed chamber, the sample was opened in nitrogen in a class 10,000 clean room to prevent contamination. Individual particles were picked with sterilized tools and stored under nitrogen in airtight containers. Before analysis, the sample underwent Nano-X-ray computed tomography and was embedded in an epoxy resin block for scanning electron microscopy. Rods and filaments of organic matter, interpreted as filamentous microorganisms, were observed on the sample's surface. Variations in size and morphology of these structures resembled known terrestrial microbes. Observations showed that the abundance of these filaments changed over time, suggesting the growth and decline of a prokaryote population with a generation time of 5.2 days.

Population statistics indicate that the microorganisms originated from terrestrial contamination during the sample preparation stage rather than being indigenous to the asteroid. Results of the study determined that terrestrial biota had rapidly colonized the extraterrestrial material, even under strict contamination control. Researchers recommend enhanced contamination control procedures for future sample-return missions to prevent microbial colonization and ensure the integrity of extraterrestrial samples. Another factor in gathering contamination-free sampling is that everything used to collect extraterrestrial material originates on a planet awash in microbial life.

If microbes made it to the sample does that mean..

[Bart 5020663]

microbes previously on the sample (if any) could have escaped from the lab to cause 'the final covid'?

Re:

[jiriw]

Not unlikely any microbe that would naturally evolve from outside of this solar system would exhibit such a degree of compatibility with anything alive on this planet... but otherwise.. I guess it would theoretically be possible. However, there are labs in this world working with highly infective and devastatingly ill-making earth-borne microbes. And as long as all protocols are followed correctly, they seem to hold up, until now.... at least, we're still here, aren't we?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Any extraterrestrial microbes would not likely be able to infect us in the "traditional" sense, i.e. hijacking our cellular machinery to turn them into virus factories. However there is nothing to stop them from from finding our moist organic nutrient-filled bodies delicious and simply consuming them for resources and reproducing via exponential mitosis. This is exactly what the earth organisms did to that asteroid, there is no reason it cannot work in the opposite direction. This would likely result in

Re:

[nevermindme]

Current natural virus has evolved in the same environment to their hosts for hundreds of thousands of years and a slight percentage become a threat to their hosts once in that course of events. The odds that something comes in from interstellar space that is more virulent and affecting humans in a non trivial more way than the daily load of Rhinovirus is billions and billions to one. Life on earth is a millions to one shot, that something goes from a life full planet, to another life filled find a com

Re:

[Tailhook]

Asking that implies that, contrary to what you're expected to believe, labs cannot leak. Lab leaks are a metaphysical impossibility that only uneducated Nazis deny. Especially if they're Chinese labs.

This has all been made perfectly clear to you. Stop spreading misinformation.

Dr. Ian Malcolm said it

[SkyMunky]

Life...uh...finds a way

Space?

[cheaphomemadeacid]

We might have to study these kind of mission in space as it would be easier/possible to keep the contamination at bay

Earth Life..

[Jedi Holocron]

is(are) clearly an invasive lifeform(s).