5 ms·

How extremophilic bacteria survive in space for one year

72 points by hhs 6y ago

Symmetry 6y ago
I'd imagine it would have an easier time if it were inside a rock, say. The meteorites we have that originated on Mars apparently took millions of years to get here, though. But those are just the rocks we've found, on the third hand. Intra-system panspermia is an interesting and seemingly credible idea but, as they say, More Research is Required.
- varispeed 6y ago
  There is this theory that speed of light is not symmetrical, that is it may be c/2 in one direction and infinity in the opposite one. Given that, we could perceive that meteorites took millions of years to arrive, but it could be in a instant.
  - ISL 6y ago
    Such a theory is in conflict with more than a century of searches for anisotropies of spacetime. No anisotropies have ever been found, beginning with Michelson's seminal experiment.
  - polishdude20 6y ago
    What is the opposite direction anyways? Opposite to what? The original message? What if the two transceivers are rotating around the sun on opposite sides? What is one direction at one point in time is now another direction at another point. Is there a difference between bouncing a signal off of a mirror back to yourself and sending a signal which then gets a response from the receiving party? Is my point coming across? Because like, are we talking about direction relative to a receiver or direction relative to some fixed body in space?
  - tasty_freeze 6y ago
    You overstate it by calling it a theory. I'm sure you just watched the Veritasium video [1] on this very subject. The point wasn't to claim that space has a preferred direction (which would contradict known physics) but highlighting that there is no way to prove the speed of light is uniform, only that the round trip speed is 'c'. Second, even if the speed of light is unbounded (or has a much higher bound) in one direction, that doesn't give a free ride for objects with mass to travel any faster than they currently do. It would take an incredible amount of energy to accelerate such rocks to near/above the constant 'c' and then you'd need to explain how it returns to normal asteroid speeds before crashing into Earth. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k
    - varispeed 6y ago
      Thank you! Haha yes I watched Veritasium video...
    - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
      With synchronized atomic clocks, I could measure one-way speed - at least well enough to tell the difference between c, c/2, and infinity.
      - tasty_freeze 6y ago
        Watch the linked video. He goes into that issue.
        AnimalMuppet 6y ago
        No, I'm not going to watch the linked video to find out whether he's really answering my question or not. Tell me why I can't synchronize two atomic clocks that are right next to each other, then put one in a car and drive 1000 km away. Tell me why that won't allow me to correlate departure and arrival times well enough to answer the question.
        tasty_freeze 6y ago
  - syntheno 6y ago
    What? How did you arrive at that conclusion?
- 867-5309 6y ago
  > Intra-system panspermia is an interesting and seemingly credible idea another interesting idea is that our Sun is not hot enough to produce any elements heavier than iron, meaning that trace elements in you and I are of extra-solar system origin
  - whatshisface 6y ago
    Panspermia is an idea, that's a fact. Our sun makes helium. It doesn't even make helium that we use - we get our helium from underground deposits filled by radioactive decay.
    - 867-5309 6y ago
      unsure what your point is
      - saagarjha 6y ago
        Panspermia isn't widely accepted, but stellar nucleosynthesis/supernovae are generally accepted to be the source of the heavy elements.
      - dwohnitmok 6y ago
        I think parent's point is that, to an extremely accurate approximation, none of the elements on Earth come from the Sun. Hence, while it's true that trace elements didn't come from the Sun, it's weird to focus on that because nothing else did either. EDIT: And it's also weird to tie this to the fact that the Sun won't produce elements heavier than iron through normal (i.e. non-nova) fusion late in its life since that has nothing to do with it.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
    I would have assumed all of the material in the solar system didn't come from our sun? Other than what's been blown off the sun as solar wind. I mean, Earth didn't originate from material from the stella explosion of Sol.
Medicalidiot 6y ago
If we ever have a pathogen like Archaea I will shit my pants. Prions already are able to survive 242F for 15 minutes and caustic chemicals so we already have enough on our plates. I'm going to pose something that was interesting when the Chief Medical Officer of NASA spoke at my school: bacteria in space will have massive amounts of genetic changes -> bacteria on a Mars mission may become pathogenic to the point where we would not want people who traveled to Mars to come back. He also talked about intracranial hypertension being an issue with people going into space and how to remedy that one. It was fascinating to hear a physician in charge of astronauts talk about what medical challenges needs to be overcome. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/nanobiosym_genes https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/nan... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5509877/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5509877/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26099128/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26099128/
- COGlory 6y ago
  Most hyperthermophilic archaea die well below many bacterial sporulation temperatures already. Additionally, most hyperthermophilic organisms can't live at body temperature, as that's too low, let alone reproduce AND fight off a host immune system. Prions are a special case and not particularly virulent because they aren't genetically tractable.
  - mc32 6y ago
    But prions are a bit like ice-nine in that they can cause other proteins to become prions.
  - Medicalidiot 6y ago
    When you look at the bacteria that generate spores, the only population that is usually affected is neonates; which is why it's advised not to give honey to anyone under the age of 1-2. For spore forming bacteria, they're not prevalent in the environment and their transmission is usually limited.
- jwilk 6y ago
SlipperySlope 6y ago
Very likely that the entire Solar System will be revealed to be a single ecosystem. We will find bacteria life on Mars and Venus and other places - that are related to life on earth. Bacteria spores just have to endure many years in space after getting blasted off one planet's surface by asteroid impact. If I am right, we will know within five years when humans check out the other planets.
disown 6y ago
The headline made me think of paypal. From extremophile to tardigrade to paypal. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24450828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24450828 It's amazing what the human mind is capable of. That or I need to kick my HN addiction.

72 points by hhs 6y ago

I'd imagine it would have an easier time if it were inside a rock, say. The meteorites we have that originated on Mars apparently took millions of years to get here, though. But those are just the rocks we've found, on the third hand. Intra-system panspermia is an interesting and seemingly credible idea but, as they say, More Research is Required.

varispeed 6y ago
There is this theory that speed of light is not symmetrical, that is it may be c/2 in one direction and infinity in the opposite one. Given that, we could perceive that meteorites took millions of years to arrive, but it could be in a instant.
- ISL 6y ago
  Such a theory is in conflict with more than a century of searches for anisotropies of spacetime. No anisotropies have ever been found, beginning with Michelson's seminal experiment.
- polishdude20 6y ago
  What is the opposite direction anyways? Opposite to what? The original message? What if the two transceivers are rotating around the sun on opposite sides? What is one direction at one point in time is now another direction at another point. Is there a difference between bouncing a signal off of a mirror back to yourself and sending a signal which then gets a response from the receiving party? Is my point coming across? Because like, are we talking about direction relative to a receiver or direction relative to some fixed body in space?
- tasty_freeze 6y ago
  You overstate it by calling it a theory. I'm sure you just watched the Veritasium video [1] on this very subject. The point wasn't to claim that space has a preferred direction (which would contradict known physics) but highlighting that there is no way to prove the speed of light is uniform, only that the round trip speed is 'c'. Second, even if the speed of light is unbounded (or has a much higher bound) in one direction, that doesn't give a free ride for objects with mass to travel any faster than they currently do. It would take an incredible amount of energy to accelerate such rocks to near/above the constant 'c' and then you'd need to explain how it returns to normal asteroid speeds before crashing into Earth. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k
  - varispeed 6y ago
    Thank you! Haha yes I watched Veritasium video...
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    With synchronized atomic clocks, I could measure one-way speed - at least well enough to tell the difference between c, c/2, and infinity.
    - tasty_freeze 6y ago
      Watch the linked video. He goes into that issue.
      - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
        No, I'm not going to watch the linked video to find out whether he's really answering my question or not. Tell me why I can't synchronize two atomic clocks that are right next to each other, then put one in a car and drive 1000 km away. Tell me why that won't allow me to correlate departure and arrival times well enough to answer the question.
        tasty_freeze 6y ago
- syntheno 6y ago
  What? How did you arrive at that conclusion?
867-5309 6y ago
> Intra-system panspermia is an interesting and seemingly credible idea another interesting idea is that our Sun is not hot enough to produce any elements heavier than iron, meaning that trace elements in you and I are of extra-solar system origin
- whatshisface 6y ago
  Panspermia is an idea, that's a fact. Our sun makes helium. It doesn't even make helium that we use - we get our helium from underground deposits filled by radioactive decay.
  - 867-5309 6y ago
    unsure what your point is
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      Panspermia isn't widely accepted, but stellar nucleosynthesis/supernovae are generally accepted to be the source of the heavy elements.
    - dwohnitmok 6y ago
      I think parent's point is that, to an extremely accurate approximation, none of the elements on Earth come from the Sun. Hence, while it's true that trace elements didn't come from the Sun, it's weird to focus on that because nothing else did either. EDIT: And it's also weird to tie this to the fact that the Sun won't produce elements heavier than iron through normal (i.e. non-nova) fusion late in its life since that has nothing to do with it.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
  I would have assumed all of the material in the solar system didn't come from our sun? Other than what's been blown off the sun as solar wind. I mean, Earth didn't originate from material from the stella explosion of Sol.

Medicalidiot 6y ago

If we ever have a pathogen like Archaea I will shit my pants. Prions already are able to survive 242F for 15 minutes and caustic chemicals so we already have enough on our plates. I'm going to pose something that was interesting when the Chief Medical Officer of NASA spoke at my school: bacteria in space will have massive amounts of genetic changes -> bacteria on a Mars mission may become pathogenic to the point where we would not want people who traveled to Mars to come back. He also talked about intracranial hypertension being an issue with people going into space and how to remedy that one. It was fascinating to hear a physician in charge of astronauts talk about what medical challenges needs to be overcome. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/nanobiosym_genes https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/nan... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5509877/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5509877/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26099128/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26099128/

COGlory 6y ago
Most hyperthermophilic archaea die well below many bacterial sporulation temperatures already. Additionally, most hyperthermophilic organisms can't live at body temperature, as that's too low, let alone reproduce AND fight off a host immune system. Prions are a special case and not particularly virulent because they aren't genetically tractable.
- mc32 6y ago
  But prions are a bit like ice-nine in that they can cause other proteins to become prions.
- Medicalidiot 6y ago
  When you look at the bacteria that generate spores, the only population that is usually affected is neonates; which is why it's advised not to give honey to anyone under the age of 1-2. For spore forming bacteria, they're not prevalent in the environment and their transmission is usually limited.
jwilk 6y ago

SlipperySlope 6y ago

Very likely that the entire Solar System will be revealed to be a single ecosystem. We will find bacteria life on Mars and Venus and other places - that are related to life on earth. Bacteria spores just have to endure many years in space after getting blasted off one planet's surface by asteroid impact. If I am right, we will know within five years when humans check out the other planets.

disown 6y ago

The headline made me think of paypal. From extremophile to tardigrade to paypal. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24450828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24450828 It's amazing what the human mind is capable of. That or I need to kick my HN addiction.