Moss Just Survived a Full Year Outside the International Space Station

Moss can grow pretty much anywhere, whether it be in the freezing Arctic or in the midst of hellishly hot volcanic heat. But there’s one environment scientists have theorized could be moss’s final boss: the cold, dead vacuum of space.

Turns out, according to a new pair of studies published in the journal iScience, moss scoffs at the unforgiving harshness of space and keeps on trucking.

In the airless, radiation-saturated void outside of the International Space Station, researchers tested whether a common moss species known as Physcomitrium patens could survive at all, and if it could, for how long. The answers are yes and probably forever if it wants.

Expectations were low. Many living organisms can’t survive in the cold, airless vacuum of space for even a second. Moss seemed like it wo