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Space

Space germs: How can we avoid contaminating other worlds?

Headlines about alien flu from outer space exaggerate the risk of extraterrestrial microbes but we still need to be careful about taking our own germs off-planet, says astrophysicist Erika Nesvold

By Erika Nesvold

9 June 2023

Humans could bring microbes into space

Humans bring microbes with them wherever they go

Shutterstock/Vadim Sadovski

The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or two to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. You can sign up for Lost in Space-Time for free here.

When astronauts on the Apollo 11, 12 and 14 missions returned to Earth, they were kept in quarantine for three weeks – along with the lunar samples they’d collected – to make sure they hadn’t brought any potentially deadly microbes back from…

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