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Could Life on Earth Have Descended From Microbes That Traveled From Mars Long Ago?
Researchers demonstrated Deinococcus radiodurans can survive pressures up to 3 gigapascals during Mars impact ejection, supporting the panspermia hypothesis and planetary protection concerns.
- On March 3, 2026, Johns Hopkins' team reported in PNAS Nexus that Deinococcus radiodurans survived impact pressures up to 3 GPa, with nearly full survival at 1.4 GPa and 60% at 2.4 GPa.
- To test lithopanspermia, researchers simulated asteroid strikes by sandwiching microbes between metal plates and firing a gas-gun projectile at speeds up to 300 mph, producing 1–3 GPa pressures.
- Using TEM and transcriptional tests, researchers detected rising stress signals as pressure rose, with damage at 2.4 GPa; survivors of D. radiodurans repaired DNA, regrew, and reproduced.
- The study's implications include potential policy reassessment for sample returns as Phobos orbits Mars at 3,700 miles and NASA's Planetary Protection program funded related research supporting JAXA's MMX mission launching later this year.
- Ramesh cautioned 'We might need to be very careful about which planets we visit' as future experiments plan to test impacts and organisms, including fungi, for lithopanspermia relevance.
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Scientific research found that microbes can survive the expulsion of planet Mars after the fall of a meteorite.
Life from Mars? New study suggests life could travel between planets on asteroid debris
Tiny microorganisms tucked inside space rocks could survive being hurled between planets -- including to Earth -- according to a new study from Johns Hopkins University, raising fresh questions about how life may have first begun on our world.
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Leaning Left1Leaning Right2Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution57% Center
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- 57% of the sources are Center
57% Center
14%
C 57%
R 29%
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