15/05/2022
EARTH PLANTS CAN GROW IN MOON SOIL 🌑🌱
A study by scientists at the University of Florida (UF) made a breakthrough discovery after a plant called Arabidopsis sprouted from a moon’s soil, also known as lunar regolith.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 50 years ago, it was a visionary plan of Apollo astronauts to take regolith samples back to Earth for future studies.
“Here we are, 50 years later, completing experiments that were started back in the Apollo labs,” said Robert Ferl, a professor in the Horticultural Sciences department at the UF.
The plants, however, did not grow as robust as plants grown to Earth soil. But Ferl said the fact that they grew at all was remarkable.
In the article published by NASA on Thursday, this research is part of the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program which aims to study the samples from the Apollo Program, in advance for the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon’s South Pole.
“BPS (Biological and Physical Sciences) helped support this work, which also supports other fundamental plant research, including Veggie, PONDS, and Advanced Plant Habitat,” it wrote. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Jones/University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences)