Awful Green Things From Outer Space!

[Dannyalcatraz]

...come from "Inner" space. This may give us new insights as to just how tough life is, especially since this isn't some exotic extremophile, but apparently, a normal oceanic plankton.

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/nature/post/sea-plankton-discovered-outside-space-station/

 

[Thunderfoot]

I always knew life on Earth was more hardy than was first thought. My guess is if we mined the moon a little harder we could find our first "extra-terrestrial" species. Similar, but unique, to our own single-celled organisms. Of course multi-celled life is still a bit of a stretch without some sort of atmosphere (not necessarily carbon based oxygen/nitrogen) because vacuums leave a hard time for expansion.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

First- good to see you T-foot. Been a while!

Second- yeah, with everything we've learned about extremophiles in the past couple of decades, it shouldn't come as a surprise if/when we find life in truly unexpected places. But that's the conundrum here- this wasn't an extremophilic algae, it was a common sea algae. This is kind of like finding Nemo hanging out on a curb in Phoenix, AZ in the summer.

 

[CCamfield]

That is AMAZING. Wow. Thanks for sharing!

The awful green things reference didn't hurt either