Future visitors to the moon could be met by quite a surprise if they make it to the lunar south pole, as new research suggests organisms which might have made their way from Earth could potentially be living there.
According to Prabal Saxena, a planetary researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, it’s possible that forms of microbial life could survive the treacherous conditions of the lunar south pole, where — paradoxically — the extreme cold and lack of oxygen could allow them to survive.
"One of the most striking things our team has found is that, given recent research on the ranges in which certain microbial life can survive, there may be potentially habitable niches for such life in relatively protected areas on some airless bodies," Saxena told an astronomy outlet.
The south pole of the moon could be such a place, but what kind of life might be there isn’t yet clear, according to the researcher.
"We're currently working on understanding which specific organisms may be most suited for surviving in such regions and what areas of the lunar polar regions, including places of interest relevant to exploration, may be most amenable to supporting life," Saxena said.
Heather Graham, another member of the study team at NASA’s Goddard center, said scientists are fairly confident that humans would be the most likely source of any microbial life discovered on the moon, but says a sufficiently powerful asteroid slamming into the Earth could have theoretically brought terrestrial life to extraterrestrial territory as well.
"We view humans as the most likely vector given the extensive data that we have about our history of exploration and the impact record as a second, albeit less influential, early terrestrial source," Graham explained.
"We will soon have 50 years of history of humans and their objects on the surface with no stringent requirements regarding forward contamination," she added.