The lunar south pole has become a hotspot for the space community, especially recently, as NASA plans to land the Artemis space mission there. Now, a NASA scientist has shared a shocking revelation – life on the Moon could already exist, and it is humanity’s fault that it got there.
According to a report from Insider, NASA planetary scientist Prabal Saxena says that potentially habitable niches could provide a safe haven for microbial life in the Moon’s harsh environment. The Moon isn’t like our own planet or even other planets. It doesn’t have much of an atmosphere. As such, life has a difficult time surviving there.
However, the dead-looking landscape that makes up the Moon could be hiding signs of microbial life on the Moon, Saxena believes. For the longest time, Saxena has spent his time looking beyond our solar system for signs of alien life. However, he recently began working with a team that has been looking for life much closer to home.
What is most intriguing about this theory is that Saxena and his team say the microbial life that may be sheltering in these niches on the Moon was likely delivered to our lunar satellite aboard lunar landers, like the historic Apollo landers. The lunar south pole is set to be a big part of the Artemis III mission, which astronauts planned to land near it at one of 13 potential landing sites.
No human has ever set foot on this part of the moon. However, we know it contains ice, which some believe we may be able to use to create water and other things on the Moon, helping to drive possible moon base construction there. Some of these icy areas may be the safe havens for those microbes, as the sun’s harmful radiation never reaches those zones.
Even if life on the Moon doesn’t exist just yet, microbial life will likely find a solid foothold when humanity begins walking around on our lunar satellite in the not-so-distant future.
