This moss survived 9 months outside the International Space Station in the harshness of space

Space is a harsh environment: it's a vacuum with freezing temperatures, super high ultraviolet radiation and, of course, almost no oxygen.

But Japanese researchers have found a type of moss that doesn’t really care about much of that.

In a new study published on Thursday , resear chers sent a type of moss called to the International Space Station (ISS). This moss didn't get to live in the comfy more-or-less Earth-like confines of the station, but rather was put outside into the harshness of space for nine months.

The researchers tested three different stages of the moss: protenemata, (juvenile moss); brood cells, (specialized stem cells); and sporophytes (reproductive structures that encase spores).

Not all of the stages survived.

The samples of the moss Physcomitrium patens wer