A new model tracking microbial contamination across 14 past Mars landing and crash sites finds that ultraviolet radiation can sterilize exposed spacecraft surfaces in roughly one Martian day, while ...

Some Earth-based microbes may be tougher than expected, raising new questions about survival beyond our planet.

"When samples are brought back to Earth, we have to assume that they are hazardous until we can prove otherwise." ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The bacterium, Tersicoccus phoenicis, was named to reference its discovery in clean rooms (“Tersi”, Latin for clean), its cell ...

The possibility of life on other planets is one of the biggest mysteries in science. But what would happen if we actually ...

NASA cleanrooms exist to keep spacecraft free of fungus and bacteria that could unknowingly hitch a ride to another world.

But a new study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology suggests that some organisms may be far more difficult to ...

Can life survive on Mars? This is what a recent study published in PNAS Nexus hopes to address as a team of scientists from ...