Solar activity can be dangerous to astronauts in space. As Artemis II prepares to launch on April 1, NASA will be monitoring the Sun’s eruptions to help keep the Artemis crew safe from excess radiation.
The internet went into a frenzy on Friday when a NASA astronaut shared a weird alien-looking photo on social media.
The photo showed an object that was floating in the air and appeared to be purple, egg-shaped with tentacles spouting out of it.
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Users were in utter shock when they saw the photo. One user responded to the astronaut by telling him to “kill it with fire.”
Astronaut Don Pettit shared a photo of a weird object growing on the International Space Station.
(Don Pettit/X / FOX Weather)
Another said, “looks like a mimic hatching out of an egg,” referring to the movie, “Prey.”
One user even joked by commenting, “Bro, I genuinely thought this was some kind of egg hatching.”
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Although the photo is very strange, the object isn’t evidence of extraterrestrial life forms but is rather a normal everyday item.
The astronaut, Donald Pettit, who snapped the picture, posted on X that the object was a potato he had been growing in his space garden.
Tentacles are seen spouting out of an object that is growing on the International Space Station.
(Don Pettit/X / FOX Weather)
“Spudnik-1, an orbiting potato on @Space_Station,” astronaut Pettit said on X.
Astronaut Pettit took the photo in the middle of Expedition 72 on the International Space Station (ISS), which took place from September 2024 to April 2025.
“I flew potatoes on Expedition 72 for my space garden, an activity I did in my off-duty time,” astronaut Pettit said. “This is an early purple potato, complete with a spot of Velcro hook to anchor it in my improvised grow light terrarium.”
Crew-12 successfully launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early this morning. The 4-person team is set to dock at the International Space Station on Saturday, Feb. 14, and remain at the iSS for eight months.
Pettit continued to tell users that he was inspired by Andy Weir’s book and movie “The Martian” to start growing potatoes.
“Potatoes are one of the most efficient plants based on edible nutrition to total plant mass (including roots),” Pettit said. “Potatoes will have a place in future exploration of space. So, I thought it was good to get started now.”
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According to NASA, astronauts have been growing plants in the space garden for years in order to study plant growth in microgravity, while adding fresh food to the astronauts’ diet.
In recent years, NASA has successfully grown three types of lettuce, Chinese cabbage, mizuna mustard, red Russian kale and zinnia flowers in space.
