The International Space Station (ISS) was reported to have been a habitat of planktons and other microorganisms. The planktons, a source of food to many sea creatures, were blown up into space by Earth's air currents to the station, Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Solovyev theorized.
Solovyev, chief of the Russian ISS orbital mission, reported that the type of plankton found is not native to the parts of Russia where spacecraft are launched. A machine found the particles while it was analyzing the contents of the window wipes outside the station. The planktons are invisible to the naked eye, which explains why the organisms were found just recently.
The cosmonauts, Russian scientists that have apparently been studying for over a year at the International Space Station, have shown evidence of sea plankton on the outside of the International Space Station when taking samples from windows or illuminators. Crew members have therefore initiated a cleanup operation to put the illuminators in order. It is believed the discovery was made during a routine spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts Olek Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov.
Previous studies have found that microorganisms can live on the outer surface of the space station despite conditions such as zero gravity, temperature conditions and hard cosmic radiation. Several surveys proved that these organisms can even develop. It's not clear whether the plankton were living or dead, but microbes are known to be able to live in hostile environments like half a mile beneath the ice in Antarctica, with no sun or fresh air, according to a report from the Telegraph.
Air currents on earth to the station, as Solovyev theorized, is not the only explanation why planktons reached the outer space. According to a report from Popular Science, there were also speculations including the idea that it might have ridden up with the parts of the ISS in the late 1990s, or that they were carried up during a resupply mission.
However, these reports of the sea plankton discoveries are still unconfirmed, and were first reported by ITAR-TASS.
