Overview
- Johns Hopkins researchers showed Deinococcus radiodurans survived dynamic shock comparable to planetary ejection, with 100% survival at 1.4 GPa and about 60% at 2.4 GPa.
- At 2.4 GPa many cells exhibited membrane ruptures and internal damage, yet a substantial fraction remained viable, with transcription profiles indicating post-shock repair.
- The team generated 1–3 GPa pressures using a high-speed gas gun that drove impacts at roughly 300 mph to emulate asteroid strikes on Mars.
- The peer-reviewed study, led by Lily Zhao and K. T. Ramesh, is published in PNAS Nexus and explores whether microbes could ride impact-ejected rocks between worlds.
- The findings are spurring discussion of tighter mission safeguards, with Mars’s moon Phobos noted as a particular concern, and the team plans tests on additional bacterial species.