Extraterrestrial horrors are growing on the International Space Station \u2014 or so aghast netizens seemed to believe.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, NASA astronaut Don Pettit shared an image of an egg-shaped object floating in the orbital outpost. Bursting through its surface were purple, tentacular protrusions, like a sign of life that some man-eating alien was incubating inside. A patch of perfectly white cilia grew elsewhere on its surface.<\/p>\n
This mystifying object? A spud like any you\u2019d find in your pantry.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpudnik-1, an orbiting potato on @Space_Station!\u201d Pettit cheerily captioned the shot.<\/p>\n
Spudnik-1, an orbiting potato on @Space_Station<\/a>!<\/p>\n I flew potatoes on Expedition 72 for my space garden, an activity I did in my off-duty time. This is an early purple potato, complete with spot of hook Velcro to anchor it in my improvised grow light terrarium.<\/p>\n Potatoes are one\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/MXsoV20vJ8<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) March 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Pettit\u2019s impressive space gardening achievement was met with awe and praise \u2014 but also grossed-out reactions to the vegetable\u2019s unsettling appearance, perhaps recalling the ovomorph eggs from the \u201cAlien\u201d films, or reflecting a populace unfamiliar with the produce section.<\/p>\n \u201cKill it with fire!!!\u201d one user replied<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen this movie before,\u201d a Redditor wrote<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s an alien egg.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI genuinely thought this was some kind of egg hatching,\u201d another X user said<\/a>.<\/p>\n The \u201ctentacles,\u201d of course, are simply the potato sprouting \u2014 which, to be fair, can sometimes look a little freaky<\/a>, as anyone who has left some sitting in their pantry for too long can attest<\/a>. (Pettit shared<\/a> that absent gravity, the roots \u201cwill grow in all directions,\u201d sending additional shudders among the potato paranoid.)<\/p>\n But what about the white cilia? That was a velcro hook Pettit stuck on to keep them from floating away in his terrarium. A clever solution.<\/p>\n The potato\u2019s current fate is unknown, but the photo was from Pettit\u2019s last mission on the ISS, Expedition 72, which took place between September 2024 and April 2025. He explained that he worked on the space garden in his spare time, extolling the potato\u2019s suitability for growing in off-world environments. Some research<\/a> has suggested that potatoes could even be grown in lunar soil.<\/p>\n \u201cPotatoes are one of the most efficient plants based on edible nutrition to total plant mass (including roots),\u201d he wrote. \u201cRecognized by Andy Weir in his book\/movie \u2018The Martian,\u2019 potatoes will have a place in future exploration of space. So I thought it good to get started now!\u201d<\/p>\n More on space: Why Is Everyone Losing Their Minds Over This Little Old Mars Pyramid?<\/a><\/p>\n