Russian cosmonaut: alien bacteria found on the ISS

Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov speculates traces of alien life may have been found on the International Space Station. As part of other missions, spacewalkers regularly take samples and materials from the outside of the space station when they perform maintenance jobs.

These samples are flown back to Earth, to study the workings of the ISS and potential life in space. Scientists routinely find bacteria in these samples, usually these are life forms that either hitched a ride on the rocket or were lifted into space via natural phenomenons. Much to everyone's surprise, some of these bacteria can survive the harshness of space.

However, in an interview with the Russian state news agency, Shkaplerov said some samples contain bacteria that appear to have flown from somewhere in space:

“Bacteria that had not been there during the launch of the ISS module were found on the swabs,” Mr Shkaplerov told TASS. “So they have flown from somewhere in space and settled on the outside hull.”

He made clear that "it seems, there is no danger?", and that scientists are doing more work to find out what they are.

Then again, others are skeptic and believe these are most likely to be terrestrial bacteria. As Popular Science points out, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.



This isn't the first time scientists have discovered potential extraterrestrial life. Older readers may remember President Clinton once gave a press conference about an exciting discovery concerning Allan Hills 84001, a Martian meteorite fragment that was found on Antarctica. At the time, scientists believed the rock possibly contained microscopic evidence of ancient Martian bacterial fossils. The results of further study of that rock are still inconclusive.