Plants can be quite tough—they’ll survive forgetful caretakers, aggressive pets, and other potentially life-threatening events. Apparently, these threats don’t compare to what some plants are capable of surviving: the extreme conditions of outer space.

According to a new study published today in iScience , Physcomitrium patens —an extremely common moss species—can survive for 9 months outside of the International Space Station. What’s more, 80% of the moss spores came back to Earth intact and healthy enough to continue growing, breaking new ground in astrobiological research at the onset of humanity’s missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

“Space imposes multiple extreme stresses simultaneously, and we expected that nearly all the spores could die,” Tomomichi Fujita , study seni

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