via unexplained-mysteries Scientists have identified a bacterium that seems surprisingly capable of surviving in the vacuum of space. Scientists have long speculated over what processes might have given rise to life on other worlds. One such process, which is known as panspermia, involves life from one planet being transported to another on asteroids and comets that have come into contact with an inhabited world. Given how long it would take to carry organisms such vast distances however, it would need to be possible for them to survive in the vacuum of space for perhaps millions of years at a time. While this might sound impossible, one particularly hardy Earth bacterium has recently demonstrated that the idea of surviving for extreme lengths of time in space may not be all that far-fetched. Known as Deinococcus radiodurans, the bacterium - which was originally found inside a can of meat - was found to have had no trouble surviving on a special platform situated outside the space