There is an old idea that life on Earth may have begun with material delivered here from space.
Which makes NASA’s latest concern rather good: after wondering whether the cosmos contaminated Earth, scientists are now asking whether Earth might contaminate the Moon.
A NASA-led study found that some ordinary Earth microbes carried by astronauts and spacecraft could potentially survive in protected, shadowed areas near the Moon’s South Pole — in places ranging from crater floors to something as small as a boot print.
The concern is not that the Moon is about to become moldy. It is that lingering Earth microbes could confuse future attempts to tell whether a biological clue came from the Moon — or from us.
Eventually, even the universe needs an infection-control policy.
#TheModernRaconteur #DailyBrief #LunarMicrobes