An open call for High Altitude Astrobiology Challenge, has been announced by the United States Rocket Academy, for entries in a citizen science project, that will attempt to collect samples of microbes from Earth’s atmosphere at the edge of space. Image above: XCOR Aerospace‘s Lynx spacecraft concept.
Earth’s biosphere has been discovered to extend much higher than once thought (up to 100,000 feet – 30,480 meters, above the planet’s surface).
Any microorganisms present at these high altitudes could be subject to the mutating effects of increased radiation and transported around the globe in a sort of pathogenic jet-stream.
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