Planetary scientist Prabal Saxena from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has announced that there may be microbial life in dark craters at the south pole of the Moon.
There may be "potentially habitable niches" for such life in relatively protected areas, Saxena said.
According to the news in Business Insider, if they exist, such microbes are considered to originate from Earth and reach there by landing operations on the Moon.
The moon's south pole has received a lot of attention in recent years, as it is where NASA hopes to land Artemis III astronauts in 2025. NASA had identified 13 potential landing sites.
No human has ever set foot on the south pole of the Moon. However, some craters there are known to contain ice.
Some areas of these craters are in permanent darkness, in permanent shadow. As a result, the Sun's harmful radiation never reaches these lunar pockets, and they can be "safe havens" for microbes.
