MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Roscosmos cosmonauts had collected 19 samples of cosmic dust from the surface of the International Space Station (ISS) during spacewalks as part of the space experiment dubbed "Test," the corporation said.
"Studies of cosmic dust samples from the ISS twice showed the presence of Mycobacteria and Delftia genera species; the Comamonadaceae family of the Burkholderiales order, which are species of the typical terrestrial and marine genera of bacteria," Roscosmos said.
The experiments were conducted in 2010-2016 by the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash, part of Roscosmos) experts together with leading Russian scientific bodies.
Their results, Roscosmos concluded, "substantiated the need to establish a new upper boundary of the Earth's biosphere."
