In a groundbreaking achievement, cotton seeds successfully germinated on the Moon in January 2019, marking a historic moment for space exploration and plant biology. This remarkable event took place aboard China’s Chang’e 4 probe, which landed on the far side of the Moon at the beginning of January 2019. The successful growth of cotton on the Moon highlights the potential for future sustainable living and farming in space.
Cotton first appeared on Earth between 10 to 15 million years ago, long before the arrival of humans, who have only been around for about 300,000 years. Ancient Asian and American civilizations are believed to have started cultivating cotton fibers approximately 7,000 years ago. However, the biggest mystery remains how cotton seeds managed to spread naturally across different continents without human intervention.
Scientists have ruled out the idea that cotton seeds could have simply floated through the air due to their lightweight nature. The most plausible theories suggest that cotton seeds may have spread by sticking to the mud on the feet of migratory birds or by being carried across oceans by sea currents. Over millions of years, rare and unpredictable natural events may have helped cotton spread across Africa, Asia, and the Americas — but the exact mechanism remains a mystery.
In 2019, cotton made another surprising journey — this time to the Moon. Chinese scientists included cotton seeds in a small biosphere experiment aboard the Chang’e 4 lander. Once the probe successfully landed, the seeds sprouted, making cotton the first plant to germinate on the Moon. Although the experiment was short-lived due to extreme lunar conditions, it demonstrated the possibility of growing plants in extraterrestrial environments.
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This experiment paves the way for future research into growing food and other plants in space, which could be essential for long-term human exploration and colonization of the Moon and beyond. Scientists are now exploring how different environmental factors on the Moon and other planets could affect plant growth and survival.
For those interested in understanding the complexity of species and their evolution, Benoît Prospéro recommends the book “Qu’est-ce qu’une espèce ?” by Meredith Root-Bernstein, a researcher in ethnobiology and ecology at CNRS. The book explores the concept of species through the lens of different cultures and ecological relationships, challenging traditional definitions based on Darwin’s theory of evolution. It highlights how societies define species differently depending on their environment and survival strategies, shedding light on the complex relationship between humans and nature.
The successful germination of cotton on the Moon represents a small but significant step toward establishing a human presence beyond Earth. While the mysteries of cotton’s natural spread on Earth remain unsolved, this achievement demonstrates the resilience of life and the potential for future space agriculture.
This article is originally published on radiofrance.fr
