An astronaut brought back seeds from the Moon, and trees are still growing from them
During the Apollo 14 mission in 1971, astronaut Stuart Rouse took tree seeds with him into lunar orbit, from which so-called “moon trees” grew after his return to Earth.
This was reported by Space Daily.
The seeds orbited the Moon aboard the command module, and later, pine, sequoia, sycamore, liquidambar, and Douglas fir trees were grown from them and planted in the U.S. and other countries. Despite their space journey, scientists found no significant differences between these trees and ordinary ones.
The experiment was initiated by Rusa himself, who worked as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service before joining NASA. The idea was later continued as part of the Artemis program, with tree seeds once again sent into space.
Previously, the Japanese probe Hayabusa-2 delivered organic compounds from the asteroid Ryugu. And NASA researchers detected organic compounds, including sugar molecules, in samples brought back from the asteroid Bennu.
The Curiosity rover has identified more than 20 types of organic molecules, including a nitrogen-containing compound structurally similar to the building blocks of DNA.
