The balloon carrying scientific payload that discovered the new bugs. Credit: ISRO
The bugs, highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, were found during a joint experiment by ISRO, Bangalore; Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS); Hyderababd-based Anvesha and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
One of the new species has been named Janibacter hoylei after astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. Another is called Bacillus isronensis to recognise the contribution of ISRO in the balloon experiments which led to the discovery and the third has been named Bacillus aryabhata after India's celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata as also ISRO's first satellite.
ISRO sources said the experiment was conducted using a 26.7 million cubic feet balloon carrying a 459 kg scientific payload soaked in 38 kg of liquid neon. The payload consisted of a cryosampler containing sixteen evacuated and sterilised stainless steel probes. Throughout the flight, the probes remained immersed in liquid neon to create a cryopump effect. These cylinders, after collecting air samples from different heights ranging from 20 km to 41 km, were parachuted down and safely retrieved. The samples were analysed by CCMB and NCCS scientists.
In all, 12 bacterial and six fungal colonies were detected, nine of which showed great similarity with species earlier reported from earth. Three bacterial colonies — PVAS-1, B3 W22 and B8 W22 — are new species. They have significantly higher UV resistance compared to their nearest phylogenetic neighbours, an ISRO release said.
While the present study does not conclusively establish the extra-terrestrial origin of microorganisms, it does provide positive encouragement to continue the quest to explore the origin of life, it said.
The multi-institutional effort was let by astrophysicist Jayant Vishnu Narlikar from the IUCAA and mentored by veteran scientists U. R. Rao from ISRO and P. M. Bhargava from Anveshna.
