{"id":606611,"date":"2026-04-26T01:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T01:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/606611\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T01:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T01:37:08","slug":"researchers-find-fungus-surviving-in-nasa-clean-rooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/606611\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Find Fungus Surviving in NASA Clean Rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n NASA may have met its match in a microscopic stowaway that shrugs off conditions meant to simulate Mars. Researchers found a fungus, Aspergillus calidoustus, lurking in NASA clean rooms used to assemble Mars missions and put its spores through a punishing series of tests: intense radiation, extreme cold, searing heat, and low pressure meant to mimic both space travel and the Martian surface. The spores largely survived, the New York Times<\/a> reports; nearly half endured six months of neutron radiation. They outlived a benchmark heat-resistant bacterium at 125 degrees Celsius, and they held up against a 24-hour blast of UV radiation combined with Mars-like temperature and pressure, even getting some protection from simulated Martian soil. \n <\/p>\n


\n The findings, published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology<\/a>, raise concerns that current sterilization standards\u2014focused mainly on bacteria\u2014may not be enough to keep fungal hitchhikers off Mars, despite existing planetary protection rules. Study authors say the fungus could become a model for tougher decontamination protocols, not just for space missions but for fields like pharmaceuticals and food safety, where similar spores might also slip through heat-based sterilization. “This does not mean contamination of Mars is likely, but it helps us better quantify potential microbial survival risks,” said a researcher in a news release, per Discover<\/a>. “Microorganisms can possess extraordinary resilience to environmental stresses.” \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA may have met its match in a microscopic stowaway that shrugs off conditions meant to simulate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[16411,23325,196,718,23414,79,47387],"class_list":["post-606611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-contamination","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-mars","tag-nasa","tag-radiation","tag-science","tag-sterilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}