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For the first time in history, scientists have successfully grown trees from lunar soil

Due to the drastic change of the Earth’s climate and the depletion of natural resources, the idea of ​​​​modifying the environment of another planet and making them habitable for humans has recently been at the heart of the world. attention. While terraforming an entire planet would take a very long time and not even be possible with current technology, scientists at the University of Florida have made a groundbreaking discovery that could is the first step towards that – making another planet habitable.

For the first time, Anna-Lisa Paul, Stephen M. Elardo and Robert Ferl were able to grow plants in lunar soil collected during the Apollo missions decades ago. The team published their findings in the journal Communications Biology.

For the first time in history, scientists have successfully grown trees from the lunar soil - Photo 1.

Researchers have been requesting access to and studying lunar soil samples from NASA for 15 years but have been denied many times because we currently have too few lunar soil samples. Accordingly, the researchers succeeded in growing plants in samples that simulated lunar soil.

However, after scientists developed a method that required only 1 gram of soil sample per tree, the US space agency finally accepted their request in late 2020. The move could also involve related to NASA’s Artemis program, launched in 2018, which aims to put humans on the moon again.

For the first time in history, scientists have successfully grown trees from the lunar soil - Photo 2.

“This research is important to NASA’s long-term exploration goals as we will need to use the resources found on the moon and Mars to develop the Earth,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. This plant growth study is also a prime example of how NASA is working to unlock agricultural innovations. could help us understand how plants can overcome extreme conditions in food-scarce regions of the Earth.”

Anna-Lisa Paul and her team received 12 grams of lunar soil collected during the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions between 1969 and 1972. The lunar soil consists of rock fragments, monomineral fragments and many other types of glass, and it has been thoroughly studied since astronauts first brought samples back to Earth after the first successful landing in 1969.

For the first time in history, scientists have successfully grown trees from the lunar soil - Photo 3.

For the test, the team filled small plastic test tubes with a gram of lunar soil, and placed Arabidopsis thaliana seeds inside. They also add a little water and nutrient solution to the soil every day.

To see how lunar soil performs compared to other soils, the scientists created a matching group, by seeding lunar soil, volcanic ash, and in a soil-simulating synthetic moon.

The scientists chose Arabidopsis thaliana as a test subject because it grows so easily and is also one of the most studied plants in the world. Commonly known as thale watercress, this small flowering plant native to Eurasia and Africa is actually edible, and it’s a relative of broccoli and broccoli. But more importantly, as a model organism for research in plant biology, its genetic code has been mapped, allowing scientists to test how foreign soil will affect the expression of plants. gene expression of plants.

The results were indeed so promising that they surprised the researchers. After two days, all the seeds germinated.

“After two days, they start to sprout!” Anna-Lisa Paul, first author of the paper and professor of science at the University of Florida said. “Everything germinated. I can’t tell you how surprised we were! Every plant – whether in the moon sample or in the control – looked the same until about day six.”

For the first time in history, scientists have successfully grown trees from the lunar soil - Photo 4.

On the sixth day, although the samples were still growing well, the sprouts grown in the lunar soil began to show signs of difficulty and it was clear that they developed much differently from the sprouts in the control group. Their growth is much slower and their roots become stunted, in addition to having reddish pigmentation on the leaves, which is a sign of stress.

Just before the plants started to flower, the team harvested the plants, cleared the soil, and began studying their DNA. The results showed that the plants were indeed affected by the alien soil, and responded similarly to those grown in other harsh environments.

Interestingly, there are also differences in sprout growth depending on the lunar soil sample in which they are grown. The reason behind this is that the samples collected during the Apollo 11 mission were exposed to harsher space environments than those of Apollo 12 and 17.

For the first time in history, scientists have successfully grown trees from the lunar soil - Photo 5.

Although plants grown in lunar soil have proven that they are not as vigorous and grow well as those grown in Earth soil, this experiment has exceeded all scientific expectations and opened the door to new possibilities. door for plants with the potential to grow on the moon one day not too far away. It also provides many opportunities for scientists to expand our knowledge of space exploration.

The researchers wanted to conduct a series of follow-up studies to find out how plants growing in the lunar environment might actually change its soil.

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