Those Tiny Cotton Sprouts China Grew on the Moon? They're Dead Now
By Rafi Letzter, Staff Writer | January 16, 2019 05:40pm ET
They were the little cotton sprouts that could: a handful of seedlings that poked themselves up from the dirt inside a small biosphere on China's lunar lander, Chang'e-4.
Yes, the plants were stunted compared with the earthbound control plants. But they had just survived a space launch and difficult journey to the moon, and were growing in the low gravity and high radiation of extraterrestrial space. They were the first plants ever to grow on the lunar surface. None of the other species that made the trip with them showed any similar signs of life.
Now they're dead. And it's all the moon's fault.
During a news conference today (Jan. 16), project leader Liu Hanlong explained the plants' deaths in their little, faraway can, the Hong Kong publication GB Times reported.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/64521-sad-moon-cotton-dies.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
