Can microscopic life travel between planets and manage to survive? A new Johns Hopkins University study seems to suggest so. Hypothetically, if an asteroid hits a planet, certain bacteria might be ...

Every 26 months, Earth passes directly between the Sun and Mars. This alignment, known as the Mars opposition, is when ...

Using the shortcut found by tracking the asteroid, it would take just 153 days to get to Mars and return to the Earth.

After shooting the microbes, the team determined whether they survived and examined the survivors’ genetic material for clues to how they handled the pressure. The bacteria proved very hard to kill.