Space germs: How can we avoid contaminating other worlds?

The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time publication. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or two to inform you about fascinating concepts from their nook of the universe. You can join Lost in Space-Time without cost right here.

When astronauts on the Apollo 11, 12 and 14 missions returned to Earth, they had been saved in quarantine for 3 weeks – together with the lunar samples they’d collected – to verify they hadn’t …