Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Tiny life forms tucked into debris from an asteroid hit could catapult to other planets – including Earth – and survive, a new Johns Hopkins University study finds.
The work demonstrates that a certain hardy bacteria easily withstands extreme pressure comparable to an ejection from Mars after an asteroid hit, as well as the inhospitable conditions it would face during the ensuing interplanetary journey.
To study how a microorganism would realistically handle the stress of a planetary ejection, the team devised a way to replicate the pressure and a singular biological model.
The experiment simulated the pressure of an asteroid strike and ejection from Mars by sandwiching the microbe between metal plates and then firing a projectile at it from a gas gun. The projectile hit the plates at speeds up to 300 mph, generating 1 to 3 Gigapascals of pressure.
Tiny life forms tucked into debris from an asteroid hit could catapult to other planets – including Earth – and survive, a new Johns Hopkins University study finds.
The work demonstrates that a certain hardy bacteria easily withstands extreme pressure comparable to an ejection from Mars after an asteroid hit, as well as the inhospitable conditions it would face during the ensuing interplanetary journey.
To study how a microorganism would realistically handle the stress of a planetary ejection, the team devised a way to replicate the pressure and a singular biological model.
The experiment simulated the pressure of an asteroid strike and ejection from Mars by sandwiching the microbe between metal plates and then firing a projectile at it from a gas gun. The projectile hit the plates at speeds up to 300 mph, generating 1 to 3 Gigapascals of pressure.
