A fascinating new study has revealed that there could in fact be life on the Moon. Although not yet peer-reviewed, the new findings have outlined the idea that microbes could be thriving in perpetually dark parts of the Moon, also known as permanently shadowed regions (PSRs).
These areas remain consistently untouched by sunlight, and lie within craters and depressions near the Moon’s poles. Planetary scientist and study lead author John Moores says that the usual killer of such microbes is heat and ultraviolet radiation. However, there is very little in these PSRs.
This means bacteria have the potential to prosper in these unlit conditions. One theory is that earth microbes could’ve been accidentally transported to the surface of the moon during the Apollo missions, landing in a dormant state, which they have remained in since. These microbes pose a threat to future lunar research, as they could interfere with data collected during upcoming missions.
Speaking to Universe Today, Professor Moores spoke of the implications of this contamination.
He said: “The question then is to what extent does this contamination matter? This will depend on the scientific work being done within the PSRs.
“For example, scientists hope to take samples of ice from inside the PSRs to investigate where it came from. This could include looking at organic molecules inside the ice that are found in other places, like comets.”
He added: “That analysis will be easier if contamination from terrestrial sources is minimised.”
Although his findings suggest that the microbes in these PSRs exist in a dormant state, they remain viable for decades until their spores are killed by the vacuum of space.
Moores said that turning to these PSRs is a relatively new direction for the research, as it was before deemed unnecessary due to the “complexity of modelling the ultraviolet radiation environment here”.
It has come after a former student of his, Dr. Jacob Kloos at the University of Maryland, came up with a sophisticated illumination model to bypass the problem, allowing research to survey the minuscule amounts of light that reach into PSRs.
Moores added: “With the renewed interest in PSR exploration, we decided to take another look at these regions and realised we had all the pieces of the puzzle we needed to understand their ability to preserve terrestrial microbial contamination”.
The researches on his team looked at two PSR craters, Shackleton and Faustini, assessing whether the trace amounts of heat and UV radiation that infiltrate these areas could sustain life – the results of which proved it to be entirely possible.
11 further PSRs have been identified near the lunar South Pole as potential landing sites for NASA’s upcoming Artemis III mission, which aims to return humans to the moon by 2027.
