# Study shows hardy bacteria survived pressures comparable to an asteroid strike

**URL:** <https://awg.osdr.space/t/study-shows-hardy-bacteria-survived-pressures-comparable-to-an-asteroid-strike/3938>\
**Category:** Microbial AWG  Topics\
**Tags:** microbial, microbialawg, awg, planetary-protection, extremophiles\
**Created:** [March 4, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://awg.osdr.space/t/study-shows-hardy-bacteria-survived-pressures-comparable-to-an-asteroid-strike/3938 "2026-03-04T18:44:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mrtirum2](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/awg.osdr.space/mrtirum2/32/972_2.png) [@mrtirum2](https://awg.osdr.space/u/mrtirum2)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://awg.osdr.space/t/study-shows-hardy-bacteria-survived-pressures-comparable-to-an-asteroid-strike/3938/1 "2026-03-04T18:44:51Z")

</div>

**Extremophile survives the transient pressures associated with impact-induced ejection from Mars**

Lily Zhao, Cesar A Perez-Fernandez , Jocelyne DiRuggiero , K T Ramesh

PNAS Nexus, Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2026, pgag018, [https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag018](https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag018)

[https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/3/pgag018/8503064](https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/3/pgag018/8503064)?

- Large planetary impacts generate extreme pressures and rapid loading, raising questions about whether microorganisms can survive such events.
- An experimental system was developed to expose microbes to controlled, short-duration high pressures and recover them for survival and molecular analysis.
- The extremophile Deinococcus radiodurans, known for resistance to radiation and space-like conditions, was used as the model organism.
- Microorganisms remained viable after pressures up to ~3 GPa, indicating far greater resilience than previously assumed.
- Increasing pressure triggered biological stress responses, confirmed through transcriptional analysis of impacted samples.
- Results suggest microbes could potentially survive impact ejecta and interplanetary transfer, with implications for planetary protection, mission design, and the lithopanspermia hypothesis.

[@](https://awg.osdr.space/groups/alsdaawg)[MultiOmicsAWG](https://awg.osdr.space/groups/multiomicsawg) [@MicrobesAWG](https://awg.osdr.space/groups/microbesawg) [@PPawg](https://awg.osdr.space/groups/ppawg)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicholas.brereton](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/awg.osdr.space/nicholas.brereton/32/25_2.png) [@nicholas.brereton](https://awg.osdr.space/u/nicholas.brereton)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 8:38am UTC](https://awg.osdr.space/t/study-shows-hardy-bacteria-survived-pressures-comparable-to-an-asteroid-strike/3938/2 "2026-03-06T08:38:27Z")

</div>

Did they literally “shoot” the bacteria?! Excellent. 🦠 - - - - - 🔫 🤠