“Looks like a mimic hatching out of an egg \ud83d\ude33” wrote<\/a> one user on X, referring to the extraterrestrial monsters in the Alien movie sequels.<\/p>\n “Kill it with fire!!!” another user chimed in<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n View this post on Instagram<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A post shared by Don Pettit (@astro_pettit)<\/a><\/p>\n The otherworldly appearance of this organism is, however, deceiving.<\/p>\n In reality, it is just a purple potato.<\/p>\n The ‘tentacles’ are actually sprouts, or ‘eyes’, seeking out nearby soil to plant themselves in. And that little patch of white? Only a bit of Velcro to keep the potato from floating out of its terrarium.<\/p>\n The space spud, nicknamed Spudnik-1, represents the fruits of Pettit’s labor, working on his hobby space garden in his off-duty time on board the ISS.<\/p>\n Pettit is NASA’s oldest active astronaut, and while on his last, long-duration mission in 2024 and 2025, he decided to grow potatoes.<\/p>\n In recent posts on Instagram<\/a>, X<\/a>, and Reddit<\/a>, Pettit shared photos of his produce.<\/p>\n “Holy *%!” reads the top comment on Reddit. “You’re an actual astronaut posting in r\/gardening!!”<\/p>\n “Some hobbies have good overlap with space exploration!” replied Pettit.<\/p>\n “Bro is an astronaut casually posting his space potatoes as if everyone else isn’t gardening on an actual planet,” another user joked.<\/p>\n In comments, Pettit explains further that he grew the potatoes hydroponically<\/a>, meaning they were cultivated not in soil but in nutrient-rich water.<\/p>\n On prior ISS missions, Pettit says he has also grown peanuts, zucchini<\/a>, broccoli<\/a>, sunflowers<\/a>, and more. He even grew basil and tomato seedlings once \u2013 using earplugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Years ago, Pettit ran a NASA blog called Diary of a Space Zucchini, about his time as a space gardener on the ISS.<\/p>\n “There’s nothing like the smell of living green in this forest of engineered machinery,” he apparently wrote<\/a> on the now-removed blog.<\/p>\n Pettit joins a long line of astronauts interested in growing plants in space, especially potatoes.<\/p>\n Just as the book-turned-movie The Martian recognized, potatoes may be useful for space travel, as they provide great nutritional value relative to their mass.<\/p>\n The first potatoes were grown in space<\/a> way back in 1995, and the produce was surprisingly similar to Earthly forms, even after so much time in orbit.<\/p>\n Unlike on Earth, however, potatoes and other plants take longer to mature in microgravity.<\/p>\n Related: For The First Time, Scientists Have Grown Plants in Moon Dirt. It Didn’t Go Great<\/a><\/p>\n “The slow growth could be from [the] atmosphere, hydroponics, microgravity, etc. I have not figured it out yet, but it is probably stress-induced,” Pettit explains<\/a> on r\/gardening.<\/p>\n “I noticed no effect on the potatoes from radiation.”<\/p>\n Now if only someone had invented a deep fryer for the ISS\u2026<\/p>\n \t\t![\"Subscribe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Generic-Health-Promo-Final-642x273.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Potatoes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Chapter_Potatoes_for_Life_Support_in_Space_Whe.width-990_NqDBpfA-642x342.jpg\")
Potatoes grown in space and on the ground. (Raymond Wheeler, Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology, 2009)<\/p>\n