Strange ‘alien-like’ purple growth sprouts from a potato grown on the ISS

A bizarre floating growth on the International Space Station has sent the internet into a frenzy because of its alien-like roots.

NASA’s Don Pettit shared a picture of a potato he grew while onboard the orbiting platform.

Nicknaming the crop ‘Spudnik-1’, Don said: ‘I flew potatoes on Expedition 72 for my space garden, an activity I did in my off-duty time.

‘This is an early purple potato, complete with a spot of hook Velcro to anchor it in my improvised grow light terrarium.’

He explained: ‘Potatoes are one of the most efficient plants based on edible nutrition to total plant mass (including roots).

‘Recognised by Andy Weir in his book/movie ‘The Martian’, potatoes will have a place in future exploration of space. So I thought it good to get started now!’

But not everyone was pleased with the result of his space experiment.

One commented: ‘I genuinely thought this was some kind of egg hatching.’

The alien-looking potato had gross purple tendrils growing out of it, which Don explained was due to the zero gravity.

‘The roots would grow in all directions absent gravity, and all plants I have ever grown in space have grown far slower than they would have on Earth,’ he said.

Pettit experimented during his time on NASA’s Expedition 72 mission aboard the ISS.

In 2023, tomatoes which were grown in space were sent back to Earth after a successful NASA study into fresh food supply for future astronauts.

After splashdown, the scientific samples were taken to NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, where scientists performed additional analyses before the effects of gravity fully kicked in.

The Veg-05 experiment grew dwarf tomatoes in the station’s Veggie facility to examine the effects of light quality and fertiliser on fruit production, microbial safety, and nutritional value.

The Veggie vegetable-production system on the ISS offers an opportunity to develop a ‘pick-and-eat’ fresh vegetable component to food on the space station.

This particular investigation is expected to help define horticultural best practices to achieve high yields of safe, nutritious dwarf tomato fruit to supplement a space diet of pre-packaged food.

It was also used to assess any psychological impacts that growing plants might have on the astronauts.

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